The poor lovely baby polar bear in Nuremberg Zoo
Polar Bear Cubs Disappear At Nuremberg's Zoo
Polar bear cubs born at Nuremberg's zoo have vanished and are presumed dead, possibly of disease, the German press agency DPA reported, citing zoo director Dag Encke.
The missing cubs — probably two of them — may have been eaten by their mother, Vilma, DPA said. A second polar bear at the zoo, Vera, also had cubs recently, and they may still be healthy, the agency said.
To avoid disturbing them, no one has entered the bears' caves, and it is not known how many baby bears were born, though sounds suggest each mother gave birth to two, DPA said.
Nuremberg's zoo director had said he didn't want to follow the example of Berlin's zoo, which hand-reared the polar-bear cub Knut after his mother rejected him. Mr. Encke told Spiegel magazine's online service that he was determined to avoid "Knutomania" and was willing to let the cubs die if their mothers abandoned them.
Knut, who was born on December 5, 2006, is a star attraction at the Berlin zoo and his daily public appearances helped draw 2 million visitors to the zoo by the end of October last year. He recently received a Hollywood movie offer from producer Ash Shah, Tagesspiegel am Sonntag reported on December 30, 2007.
[Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that federal officials said yesterday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming.
The deadline was tomorrow, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it now hopes to provide a recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in time for a decision by him within the next month.
Environmental groups that petitioned to protect polar bears, arguing that warming threatened their habitat, said they would go court to ensure a timely decision. "We certainly hope that the polar bear will be listed within the next month," Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said.
Listing polar bears as "threatened" with extinction could trigger limits on development that adversely affects the animals. That listing is a step below "endangered," the most severe classification under the Endangered Species Act.]
Zoo to hand rear new polar bear star
A handout picture shows a polar bear cub born by polar bear Vera at the zoo in Nuremberg January 9, 2008. The zoo in southern Germany, under fire for letting a mother polar bear eat its five-week old cub, has bowed to media and public pressure and decided to hand rear its last surviving baby
A handout picture shows a polar bear cub born by polar bear Vera at the zoo in Nuremberg January 8, 2008. The zoo in southern Germany, under fire for letting a mother polar bear eat its five-week old cub, has bowed to media and public pressure and decided to hand rear its last surviving baby. Picture taken January 8.
Baby polar bear at Nuremberg Zoo
"Predators are known to eat their offspring when there's something wrong, or when the mother knows she cannot raise them properly," Encke told AP news agency.
Zoo director Dag Encke explained that their policy – a policy prescribed by the European Animal Conservation and Breeding Program – was not to enter the bear's den until at least six weeks after the birth so as not to disturb the animals' natural environment.
To see more pictures click on the photo below!
An angry public
Why are you so heartless, Herr zoo director?" asked the popular newspaper Bild in a headline, reflecting the public opinion and the barrage of hate mail and phone calls that have been flooding in.
So on Tuesday afternoon, the Zoo made a policy U-turn and removed a baby polar bear from Vera’s (another polar bear mother) den. According to the zoo Vera was acting strangely and this was a precautionary measure.
The baby cub will now have to get used to the switch from feeding from its mother’s to being bottle fed.
Already the cub is attracting huge press attention and has already been dubbed “Knut II” or “Schneeflocke” (Snowflake), as it does not yet have an official name.
http://www.tiergarten.nuernberg.de
Zoo lets Polar Bear Cubs Get Eaten by Mother to Avoid
This is huge news in Germany today where I live. Two five week-old polar bear cubs have died after their mother presumably ate her babies. Two polar bears at the Nuremberg zoo, Vera and Wilma, gave birth to an unknown number of cubs just two weeks apart. Wilma had her two cubs three weeks ago and Vera had her cub five weeks ago. Vera’s cub was often heard crying pitifully by zoo visitors but was ignored by the zoo staff, who stubbornly insisted to let nature take its course. The keepers decided to let the newborn bear starve and hope that the mother would eventually care for him instead of hand feeding him like Knut, who became an international sensation at the Berlin zoo after his mother rejected him. Zoo officials specifically cited the Knut case as a reason not to rescue the cubs from either mother.
Vera was seen throwing her cub in a video that’s being shown repeatedly on the news. Now the two three week-old cubs from the other mother Wilma are missing and presumed eaten, as mother polar bears do in the wild when their young are ill. Zookeepers have finally pledged to hand raise Vera’s cub after saying they would wait and see what happened to avoid another Knut situation.
There is a lot of confusion over how many cubs were born, and in a Reuters news report they say that they can’t be sure how many cubs there were. An article in The Guardian reports that six cubs were born. Another Reuters story claims that each polar bear mother gave birth to just one cub, and German source Spiegel says that three cubs were born, two of which are missing and one of which has been removed from the other mother for safety after it was being seeing tossed around. It’s hard to tell what happened exactly, but it sounds like two three-week-old polar bear cubs were killed by their mother, Wilma, and that one remains from the other mother.
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