Making do with the bear minimum.

• Position: REGIONALREPORT Triad

The North Carolina Zoo is expanding its polar bear exhibit, but until November it wasn't clear if it would have any to exhibit. The zoo had two before construction began on the expansion in 2011. Aquila, who was sent to the Detroit Zoo when renovations began, died in September from a ruptured stomach after returning to Asheboro. A few weeks later, Wilhelm, who had been lent to the Milwaukee Zoo, was euthanized after he stopped eating. With no polar bears, the zoo's attendance--761,964 last year--was bound to take a hit. "It would've been big," spokesman Rod Hackney says. "According to visitor surveys, polar bears are the most popular exhibit."

Zoo officials always planned to add more polar bears once the $8.5 million project--which will quadruple the size of the enclosure--is completed next summer. But after it started, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service halted the importation of the endangered animals. The zoo is working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to get wild ones from Canada--it wants six total--and Gov. Pat McCrory vowed to aid negotiations with the federal agency after Aquila died. "The zoo is one of North Carolina's top tourist attractions," he told the Asheboro Courier-Trihune in September, citing its annual $150 million contribution to the region. "It is an outstanding recreational and educational resource for our citizens and those visiting North Carolina and also provides a boost to the local economy" However, if his office has followed through with his pledge to help, "they haven't made us aware," Hackney says.

The fear of an empty exhibit was allayed when the zoo...