Well, it has been in the work for nearly two years, but the Water's Edge exhibi at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG aquarium is now ope to visitors.

The big attractio right now is the polar bears.

It's been eight year since Pittsburgh has had them at the zoo but now the bears are back and ready to show off.

OnQs Chris Moore reports!

[Music Plays] [Crowd Cheering Look how close he is!

See He comes right up to you!

The polar bears are bac and waiting for visitors who can now get up clos and personal with them.

Oh my gosh!

We've been following the progress of the new Water' Edge exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquariu since the summer of 2005.

[Bulldozer Sounds] Now the Bear Brother are in the exhibit and hammin it up for the public.

[Kids Cheering] Both our bears are ver public oriented, and they'll come down to the glass and greet you Hes saying hi!

Mark McDonoug is the polar bear keeper, and he was here when the bear arrived at the zoo from Denver.

They pretty much right awa won it right into the water.

And we're checkin everything out.

They're very curious animals, so they were pretty goo with some of the noises.

They kind of looked around to see wher the noises were coming from while the constructio was still going on, but they acclimated pretty wel to their new surroundings.

Right now the bears are two years old.

They each way nearly 650 pound and stand more than seven feet tall.

It's Mark's job to make sur they stay happy and healthy.

[Kids Chanting] Both of them know how to open their mouth on a command so we can get a. We can look in their mouths check their teeth, make sure everything' good in there.

They can also show us their paw so we can look to see if anything' going on with their pads.

They're starting to go down.

There's another behavio where some of it's for fun.

Some of it is to help u in the veterinarians here work with them and they kno the present, their side, so we can do hand injections for all their yearly shot and stuff like that.

It took a lot of wor just to get to this point.

When we talk with the zoo' president two years ago, she explained wha we would be seeing.

So if you're standing right her in this very side, you know the polar bea will be standing right here.

So the only thing that separate you is a three inch glass.

Three inch glass Tree inch glass!

I'll be able to go like this?

And youll get a pat-a-cak with the polar bear.

[Laughing Yeah!

Isnt it cold That is cold!

It's a 20ft long window.

Wow!

So it's going t be a really neat experience.

And that's exactly what's ther today.

A big glass wal that lets people see the bears face to face!

Look at their teeth!

Look how big they are I like how you're right up close.

And they're all in ther swimming around.

And it's not like they used t be just sitting up there in the their old exhibit.

This one's kind of cool looking.

We were up hig and we got to see them close.

And visitors are anxiousl awaiting the tunnel that they've been hearin so much about.

Well, I like that.

There's, like, there' this little tunnel down there and there's people walking dow there.

It's not up yet, but it's.

And it' not ready to come up yet.

But when the very finished, you're allowed to walk down there.

[Music Plays] Ther will be underwater viewings, which is awesome to se when the bears are in the water playing you can see them diving in.

Playing is what the bears do best jumping, and it's what everyone wh visits the exhibit enjoy seeing.

[Kids Screaming Playfully] They like to pla with each other.

Cody loves all the toy that we give them, either inside or outsid they both love.

We'll throw ice cube or ice blocks in there, sometime with fish frozen in them.

They have to try to get at.

They love to play.

He stuck his face in And they love to eat!

They eat lots of fish!

They put them in the mouth.

They eat a number of differen things.

They get two differen kinds of fish.

They get a herring.

They get about 3 pound of herring a day right now, and about a pound of a smalle fish called capelin.

It's probably about tha being in size.

The Cape ones what we work with.

And that's one of their favorit fish items.

So we'll give them that.

Then they get a total of 1 pounds of a specially made a biscuit, like a dog foo that specially made for polar bear called Polar Bear Child.

Believe it or not, the bear also love to eat fruit, especially blueberries strawberries and apples.

We're trying various other things just to see if they'll eat them.

Sometime they'll eat sweet potatoes, sometimes they don't like the as much.

So we, we try to vary up the produc as much as we can, and then we hide i all through the exhibit so that it gives the another thing to do.

Another behavior bear do is forage in the wild.

And there's a lot for visitor to do as well.

We have an imitatio of a small little fishing village would look like ou in the Hudson area or in Canadian areas.

So it has the bright color of the the villages out there.

In ther we have a lot of educational artifacts either about the bears or other environmental stuf that's going on.

The exhibit also has a fresh water waterfal for the bears to drink from.

You see, him drinking Herc you see him Yeah And the salt water swimming pool which is chilled of 55 degrees.

There's a gravel pi to play in and rocks to climb, just like the bear would have in the wilderness.

All of this was designed wit the intention of this becoming a breeding facility.

The exhibits made to hold one male polar bear two females with offspring.

So when these two become sexually mature, unfortunatel one of the brothers will probabl have to go to another, zoo or breeding facility and we'll bring in a couple of female or a female to breed with one of them.

[Music Plays] The bear brothers won't be spli up for a few more years.

They're not old enough ye to think about a mate.

If you're intereste in seeing the bears, the zoo is open all year long so don't let the winter weather scare you off.

As for the rest of the exhibit some parts of it are still being worked on.

Sea otter and walruses are on the way.

And here to tell us more abou everything that is happening at the zoo is marketing directo Connie George.

Welcome to OnQ How are you, Connie?

Fine, thanks!

All right!

Well, that looks absolutel great and stunning from back in 2005, the summe when we first visited there.

And all you sa was the construction.

I guess the mild weather helpe in that effort, getting it done right.

It's certainly helping for th walruses and sea otters as well that are coming out But they're not here yet.

Not yet.

In the springtim we'll have them.

Okay.

Now, what was it like when those two bears wer first let out in that enclosure?

How did they take to it?

It was exciting, and it brought a tea to your eye, because we've been waitin for that moment for for years, for over a yea to have the pulpit, to see the polar bears in there.

But we were just so excited.

And what happened was the looked all around the exhibit.

They they could smel 20 miles away.

So they were smelling.

And then they started to jump up on the window and interact with the visitors.

And they just love the visitors and they like the stimulation they get from the visitors a well as the visitors like them.

Now, I know you keep the well fed, but I understand that they ar the largest land predators there.

They are boss of the food chain, and so they really don't have any fear of peopl or anything else.

And that glass is thic enough to hold up, right?!

That's right!

We have special specification that we use that other zoos use.

And so there's lots of way that we know, lots of experts to tell us what we ca and can't do.

But what was really neat abou that exhibit is we went on a vision ques to other zoos throughout the whole country, and we looked a what the best of the best was, and this is a culminatio of all those things.

So it was really excitin to have them here and to be able to do tha for the bears.

It's a really comfortabl exhibit for the bears and exciting and inspirationa for the visitors as well.

You mentioned the experts and it seems as though all I read about i is that the experts say that you guys got i right for the polar bears.

Yes, they do, and we did because we have an air conditione cave for the hottest days that the bears can go i and get cool The water is 55 degrees!

Water is cool and 55 degrees.

There's a fresh water waterfall but it goes in.

It looks lik it goes into the pool, but it actually doesn' go into the pool.

It goes underneath the poo and is recycled.

We have a saltwater pool.

And so it's just it's just a fabulous exhibi for everyone involved.

And it's educational.

It has lots of subtle educational message and fun things that people learn that don't even kno they're learning about.

Now, these guys are onl two years old, but you do plan to breed them So what's going to happen?

You'll separate the one day and ship one off and bring female bears i for the other one.

Yes we will!

We have plenty of roo to do that in the back.

They also have a poo and a dig yard and lots of space in the back as well.

So they'll be separate and we'll have room for, they said, two female and their offspring as well.

So there's it' going to be quite an exciting tim when that happens.

No, that would be a little bit nervous moment because yo you take his brother away and all of a sudde a couple of females come in.

You've got to watch them closel to see how they take one another.

Oh, right.

The introduction process is really complicate and it's scary for all of us.

But they.

.

.

Mr.

Bear, meet Mrs.

bear I'm sorry.

It takes lots and lots of tim to meet them through the cages.

But when th when the female is is cycling and the male is sexually mature, that's really a good tim to introduce them so.

How long will it take for these two male to get sexually mature?

I think around 5 or 6 years.

So.

So now let's talk abou when the sea otters are going to com in the walruses.

When is that expected?

How much more constructio do you have to do there?

We still have lot of construction to do, but we expect i to open in the spring.

And se otters are really exciting and educational animals they have almost they have between 600 and 1, 600,00 million hares per square inch.

So there's all kinds of really fun, interesting fact about sea otters and walruses that are that will really excite amaze and inspire everybod that comes to see them.

Will they have the same kin of open environment where people almost be abl to get face to face to them?

Absolutely.

They're really activ and they're always in the water.

Both sea otters and walruses even in the water, more than the polar bears.

So the sea otters spend a lot of time on top of the water on the surface of the water.

And in their kelp forests.

There'll be a kel forest as well.

But what's really goin to be exciting are the tunnels that you'll walk through and se the polar bears underwater, from swimming over your hea and playing over your head, and then you'll see the sea otters in their kelp forest, and then you'll be able to se walruses underwater as well swimming over your head.

And that's the only kind o exhibit like that in the world.

So we're really excited.

How much does this help to mak the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium a world class attractio for Pittsburgh?

Well, our goal is to be one of the to ten zoos in the in the nation, and we'll hit hopefull a million visitors next year with the new exhibits.

And that, and also our conservatio education programs will help us become one of th top zoos in the country.

So, we expect to to attract lots of tourist from the exhibit, and we'll advertise i throughout the region as well.

So it should, you know, hopefully people will recogniz that we are one of the best zoos in the country.

You mentione the educational part of it.

What is that little town that little town on the Hudson like for the visitor as they come through?

Well, it's all about balance.

It's about the balanc between man and nature.

And it's all about peopl being able to sustain what they do and what they wan to do with the needs of the animals as well.

So you can we give practical ideas, thing that you can do every day that will help you conserve the environmen and really make a difference, and people really enjoy i whenever they see it, because it's integrate into the messages, as if as if you were walkin through a town.

It says the population.

As the population grows, th polar bear population decreases.

And it talks a little bit about how you can make smar seafood choices whenever you purchas and eat seafood.

It talks about different alternative energy choice you can make, and things you can d just every day in your practice.

That's a lot of ground to cover.

Yes it is.

Well, they certainly com a long way from the days when I would go to the zo as a kid and the little bears were behind cages and they looked so dull and bored themselves.

But congratulation on this world class exhibit.

We're glad to have you here, Connie!