Polar star gets roomy new pen
2008-02-04 20:27
Nuremberg - A polar-bear cub which is being groomed for stardom will be given a spacious pen at a German zoo formerly inhabited by a disgraced older female, the city of Nuremberg said on Monday.
Flocke (pronounced to rhyme with soccer) was rescued from her own mother last month and is being hand-reared, in the tradition of Knut, a male cub at Berlin Zoo that won worldwide attention last year.
Born in December, Flocke now weighs 5kg and is expected to be put on public show in a few weeks. Her name means snowflake.
Her pen is to be vacated by Vilma, an adult female believed to have eaten her own two cubs last month in a moment of stress.
Under a European breeding agreement, Vilma is to be given to the zoo in the gritty port city of Rostock on the Baltic Coast where few tourists go.
Nuremberg said the media would not be invited when Vilma is packed on the truck and sent away on Wednesday.
Flocke's own mother, Vera, is to be kept in Nuremberg, although keepers believe Flocke only narrowly escaped being wolfed down by Vera, who carried the cub around the pen by the nape of its neck.
Sapa-dpa
- SAPA