Rochester’s Seneca Park Zoo staff and visitors who loved the popular bear named Yukon mourn the loss of their beloved white polar bear. The 18-year-old bear named Yukon died Sunday night at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester.

Zoo Director Larry Sorel said the bear started having stomach problems. The zoo staff called in a doctor, but the bear didn’t respond to treatment. The necropsy showed he had an infection in his abdominal cavity as a result of pancreatitis.

Yukon lived at the zoo for the last 16 years with his female partner, Aurora. Some visitors who knew them say they felt sorry for Aurora because she was very lonely. But Sorel says the bear is not showing any signs of missing Yukon. In general adult polar bears live solitary lives, but adult males may develop friendships. The bears had successfully raised four cubs at the zoo’s Rocky Coasts exhibit. The cubs have gone on to live at other zoos in North America.

Zoo staff say there is a possibility Yukon’s mate Aurora may be pregnant. If she is, we will find out for sure when she gives birth in November or December.

Polar bears rarely live beyond 30 years. The oldest living polar bear is Debby, of Assiniboine Park Zoo, born in 1966. Few polar bears live past 18 years.

On May, 2008 the U.S. Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. By 2080, polar bears will disappear from Greenland entirely and from the northern Canadian coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.