Abandoned baby bear to be hand-raised by zoo

A FOUR-WEEK-OLD polar bear cub that was taken from its mother amid fears she would harm it is doing well, zoo keepers said last night.

The cub’s eyes are not yet open and it is not completely developed, but it is thought to be a female, the Nuremberg zoo’s deputy director Helmut Maegdefrau announced.

The bear is the first to be hand-raised since the now internationally famous Knut was brought up by a keeper after being abandoned by his mother at Berlin zoo a year ago.

The yet to be named cub was taken from its mother, Vera, on Tuesday amid concerns for its safety.

Four keepers are caring for the baby bear, who weighs just under 4lb, feeding it high-fat milk every four hours. “So far, it can only crawl a little,” Mr Maegdefrau said, adding that the cub does little more at the moment than sleep.

Another polar bear at Nuremberg, Vilma, gave birth around the same time as Vera but is believed to have killed and eaten her cubs earlier this week because they were sick.

The new cub will not be returned to its mother out of fear that Vera might eat it. The controversial decision to hand-raise the cub was made after Vera was seen carrying the cub in her jaws.

“The mother was completely confused,” Mr Maegdefrau said.

Unlike Berlin, the Nuremberg zoo is seeking another motherless polar or brown bear cub to raise alongside Vera’s newborn. “That would be the best for the animal’s development,” the zoo’s deputy director said.

Vera’s cub is expected to make its public debut by early April. Unlike Knut, who was named by the Berlin zoo, Nuremberg’s deputy mayor wants to hold a public competition to name the new cub.

Knut could be a hard act to follow. The bear, who now weighs more than 265lbs, has his own blog and TV show, and has appeared in scores of articles worldwide, including the cover of Vanity Fair.

Too big and dangerous to play with his keeper, he now has an enclosure all to himself.