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One of Lowry Park Zoo's oldest residents, he died Oct. 28. Officials await necropsy results to learn the reason.
By KEVIN GRAHAM
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 5, 2002
TAMPA -- The hollow tree at Lowry Park Zoo where Pokey the three-legged bear liked to hang out was empty Monday.
And when passers-by noticed the Florida black bear wasn't nestled in his favorite patch of shade, either, some began to worry.
"He was always sleeping in the same corner, and we noticed today he wasn't there," said Stacie Neff of Odessa, a regular zoo visitor who went looking for Pokey with her 2-year-old daughter on Monday.
Then Neff learned the sad news: Pokey, a zoo resident for more than two decades, had died.
Zoo officials said Pokey died Oct. 28. The bear came to the zoo as a cub in March 1981, making him one of Lowry Park's oldest residents. Florida black bears usually live to be 20.
A necropsy was done on Pokey last week and officials are still waiting on results to find out exactly how he died.
Pokey was special to a lot of zoo visitors, not only because he had been there so long but because he had only three legs.
"That was the big attraction for the kids," said zoo patron Ann Ryberg. "He was so cute. I'll hate to tell my grandkids he died."
Zoo spokeswoman Heather Sitton said no one knows for sure how Pokey lost his front right leg. Previous zoo owners didn't keep good records when Pokey first came to Lowry Park, Sitton said, so most speculate about what might have happened.
"He probably came in as a cub missing his front right leg, or he could have gotten it caught in something," said Sitton. "It's something we can't confirm."
Sondra Geniesse of Terra Ceia Island, along with her husband and 84-year-old mother, were planning to videotape the black bear Monday until they found out he was gone. "I'm just glad that he was here this long," Geniesse said.