41 Action News got an exclusive look to see what happens behind the scenes at the Kansas City Zoo.
Meteorologist Lindsey Anderson learned all about the polar bear Berlin's daily routine and how every move is catered to what Berlin wants.
"We try to give her lots of different choices and as much control as we possibly can in her environment," said Assistant Manager at the Polar Bear Exhibit Andrea O'Daniels.
Berlin isn't on any sort of set schedule.
"We let her choose what she wants to eat and when she wants to eat it," O'Daniels explained.
Berlin has full reign of her exhibit all day, from the front of it, which visitors see, to the back of it, which includes multiple rooms, some bedding material, an indoor pool, and other toys.
Throughout most days, Berlin can be seen pacing back and forth, for different amounts of time. O'Daniels said most visitors wonder if she spends the whole day doing that.
"When people come to the zoo they spend a few minutes at the polar bear exhibit. They get a really short snapshot of what her entire day is like," said O'Daniels. "Yes, she does pace but she goes and does other things throughout the day too."
A sign posted in front of Berlin's exhibit explains that her pacing can mean a number of different things and the zookeepers monitor it all.
"If we notice she's increasing that pacing we try to give her more choices and more control over her environment," said O'Daniels. "We try to do our best to try to figure out why is she doing it and can we give her another choice so that she does something else instead of that."
The biggest distractions for Berlin tend to be her daily enrichments.
"Enrichment is basically just anything that kind of changes her normal day," said O'Daniels. "We give her toys, you'll see her out there playing with balls or big fins or things like that. One really cool thing we do with her is we will take a toy and put it over in the gorilla building for a while so then it comes back smelling like gorillas and she always finds those toys really interesting."
This time of year you might notice Berlin slim down a few pounds, but O'Daniels said that's completely normal.
"So in the wild, they don't eat a lot in the summer time and so that's normal for her to kind of thin down. And then in the winter time she'll bulk up and get a lot heavier. So she can be up to 800 pounds, which is pretty heavy," O'Daniels said.
Right now, Berlin weighs about 538 pounds, compared to her winter weight which can get up to 800 pounds.
If you want to see Berlin for yourself, you can stop by the Kansas City Zoo's polar bear exhibit. The zookeepers say the earlier the better; Berlin is an early riser.
Coach, sign her up!! Berlin is loving the ball we threw into her exhibit. pic.twitter.com/7WL1qoLKoP
— Lindsey Anderson (@lnanderson) July 6, 2017
