Flocke, the Cutest Polar Bear Cub You’ve Never Seen…
Until Now
Written by Gavin Hudson
Published on April 13th, 2008
Meet Flocke, a new polar bear cub at
the Nuremberg Zoo in Germany.
Her name means “snowflake.” Since her birth in
December, photos and videos from the zoo have been overloading the
public with cuteness, stirring up “Flocke fever.”
Still, no one outside the zoo staff had ever seen
Flocke in person. This week, she made her first live public appearance.
Flocke is the second German polar bear cub in recent
memory to draw “oohs” and “ahhs” from around the world. Her birth
followed one year to the month after the birth of Knut, a burly little
cub in the Berlin Zoo.
Like Knut, little Flocke is also an orphan. She was
separated from her mother, Vera, when her zookeepers started fearing
that her mother and another female bear, Vilma, might pose a threat to
her. Unfortunately, in polar bears, this mother-cub bond cannot be
reestablished once broken.
Therefore, to minimize attachment to humans,
zookeepers are searching for another orphan cub to bring to the zoo as a
playmate for Flocke.
When she’s not bouncing around the zoo or drinking a
hearty blend of wolf milk and cod-liver oil (yum!), Flocke now spends
her time charming the public.
Visit the website of the Nuremberg zoo to see videos
and photos of Flocke or to learn about polar bear reasearch and
conservation programs.
Sources: Yahoo! News, Nuremberg Zoo. Photo:
Nuremberg Zoo.
