GUS, the famous polar bear of Central Park Zoo
Gus, the famous polar bear of Central Park Zoo died in New York in 2013 after three decades of celebrity. He moved from Toledo, Ohio, to New York at the age of three and immediately after needed a therapist. He had two loves, Ida and Lily (also polar bears). At the death of Ida, zookeepers observed him swimming non-stop, going around in desolate figure eights, at one point for twelve hours straight. His therapist pronounced him “just bored and mildly crazy like a lot of people in New York.” A sympathetic businessman gifted Gus the polar bear with his own endless pool for his endless sadness. Even so, Gus the polar bear had to take Prozac. He became a symbol of the city.
