Maulings, Celebrity, and Death
In July 1994, 29-year-old Australian tourist Kathryn Warburton climbed over two safety rails to get a close-up photograph of Binky in his cage. When Binky stuck his head through the bars and grabbed her, she suffered a broken leg and bite wounds. Another tourist caught the event on tape. Binky kept the woman's shoe for three days before it could be retrieved by zoo officials, and the day after the attack Alaska Star photographer Rob Layman took the iconic image of Binky, holding the shoe in his mouth, that was printed in almost every press account of the incident.
Six weeks later, Binky was involved in another mauling. Drunken local teenagers approached the bear's enclosure, apparently hoping to swim in its pool, and one 19-year-old was hospitalized with leg lacerations after he was mauled. The zoo could not confirm that Binky was the attacker, but only Binky—not Nuka—had blood on his face following the incident.
After these attacks, Binky received international news coverage and became a hero in Anchorage. Binky merchandise was popular, including t-shirts, mugs, and bumper stickers, often adorned with the iconic shoe photo or with the slogan "Send another tourist, this one got away". Local letters to the editor supported Binky during both incidents, most often arguing that polar bears' dangerousness should be respected. The Zoo's director, Sammye Seawell, criticized Warburton's actions in the Anchorage Daily News, saying "he violated the rules and jeopardized the bear's life." Though Seawell initially insisted that the attack would not change how the zoo was run, security around Binky's cage was upgraded to keep zoo visitors out.
In 1995, Binky's cagemate Nuka suddenly became sick with sarcocystosis (a parasitic disease), dying from associated liver failure on July 14, a week after her symptoms began. Shortly thereafter, Binky showed signs of the disease. On the morning of July 20, he went into convulsions and died. Zoo visitors left bouquets of flowers outside the bears' empty enclosure, and turnout at the zoo's memorial service was "astonishing" despite pouring rain. The bears were buried on zoo grounds.
Read more about this topic: Binky (polar Bear)
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