Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
September 2025
Polar Bear Gets a Root Canal
A polar bear in need of a root canal is the first beneficiary of a new marine mammal outreach kit. Biologist Kelsea Anthony developed the kit this spring as a resource for teachers. But as it turned out, it proved valuable for veterinarians as well.
Anthony, a wildlife technician with the ADF&G marine mammal program, worked on three kits over the past winter and spring, Pinnipeds of Alaska, Cetaceans of Alaska, and the Natural History of Marine Mammals, and she had just added a polar bear skull. Unknown to her, a young polar bear at the Alaska Zoo named Kova needed a root canal and the veterinarian wanted to examine an actual polar bear skull before the procedure.
“Folks were asking around and it didn’t seem like there was one in Anchorage,” Anthony said. “It came up in conversation with someone who didn’t know I had it. I mentioned we now have some sea otter fur and some polar bear fur, which we can use to demonstrate the different thermoregulatory adaptations of marine mammals. She said, ‘you don’t happen to have a polar bear skull, do you…’”
She packaged the skull and a colleague delivered it to the zoo. They X-rayed the skull, which helped them determine the settings for X-raying Kova, and gained insight into how to best drill into the tooth.
Sam Lavin, curator at the Alaska Zoo, said Kova had broken one of her canines and it was giving her trouble, it kept getting an abscess.
“We took X-rays and sent them to a veterinarian dentist down in the states,” she said. “He recommended a root canal, rather than pull the tooth. She’s a young healthy bear and it was a mostly healthy tooth.”
“Because their canines are a different shape than ours, it gives the dental team a better idea of what they are looking at when they are drilling into this giant canine and the jaw,” Lavin said. “They studied it and made a plan before they went live with it.”
The work was done on June 16 by an Anchorage orthodontist and her assistant. Lavin said they usually work on people are well qualified - and the work is done without charge. She added that the day after the procedure, they went down to Girdwood and did dental work on a brown bear at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
Kova has been at the Alaska Zoo since she was a cub. In November of 2022, she was found wandering alone around Prudhoe Bay, apparently an orphan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages marine mammals such as polar bears, and with the help of polar bear biologists, they determined the 10-month old, underweight bear should be removed from the wild. It was a difficult and unusual decision, but she had become comfortable around people and was developing behaviors that lead to conflicts with serious consequences. She was brought to the zoo and joined another polar bear there, an older female named Cranbeary.
“They really took to one another as companions,” Lavin said, adding that Cranbeary was also sedated on June 16.
“The polar bears are bonded and they stress out if one is sedated and the other is not,” she said. “So, we sedated both of them and she got an exam. Cranbeary got physical, we drew blood and checked her over.”
Cory Standtorf, the Anchorage area biologist for Fish and Game, took the opportunity to test out a new ultrasound device and practice using it on the sedated bear.
Both bears quickly recovered. “Kova bounced back, and the next day it was like nothing happened,” Lavin said.
The polar bear skull is back in the marine mammal kit, which is ready for teachers. Anthony said having a story behind the skull brings a new level of appreciation to it.
“I didn’t expect that I was going to help a polar bear with my kit, even before it was done,” she said.
The kits are with the marine mammal program for now, but the goal is to have the kits with the Anchorage School District, making it easier for teachers to access them. In the meantime, to check out a marine mammal kit email dfg.dwc.sealions@alaska.gov
More on other ADF&G kits for teachers https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=educators.teachingkits
Polar bear species profile https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=polarbear.main
More on the Alaska Zoo and polar bears https://www.alaskazoo.org/polar-bear
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