Polar bear goes for CT scan and has semen extracted for artificial insemination

Brookfield Zoo's male polar bear Hudson is put into position for his CT-scan during his annual physical at Brookfield Zoo recently. Photo: TNS

Of course there was duct tape.

Amid the precise administration of anaesthetics, the heart-rate monitoring and the many other cautious scientific preparations involved in getting a polar bear into a CT scan machine at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, the United States, recently, it came down to good old duct tape (laid over cloth strapping) to hold the animal in place so that detailed images could be made of its innards.