A photo provided by the 'Tiergarten Nuernberg' zoo in Nuremberg on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008 shows a polar bear baby being brushed after the evening feeding on Thursday, Jan 10, 2008. The Nuremberg zoo bottle-feed the cub that was taken away from its mother "Vera" over fears she might harm it.
(AP Photo/Tiergarten Nuernberg, Ralf Schedlbauer)
German polar bear cub gets web page
A photo provided by the 'Tiergarten Nuernberg' zoo in Nuremberg on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008 shows a polar bear baby being brushed after the evening feeding on Thursday, Jan 10, 2008. The Nuremberg zoo bottle-feed the cub that was taken away from its mother "Vera" over fears she might harm it.
(AP Photo/Tiergarten Nuernberg, Ralf Schedlbauer)
BERLIN—Germany's latest celebrity polar bear cub remains nameless -- but already boasts a dedicated Web site providing details of its health and giving readers a chance to christen the cuddly creature. The city of Nuremberg, in cooperation with its zoo, launched the site on Friday -- luring viewers with a gallery of photos of the winsome 4-week-old cub.
Visitors also were inundating the site's operators with suggestions for names.
"We're getting 15 e-mails with name suggestions every minute," city spokesman Robert Hackner said. "This afternoon we received over 1,000 suggestion for a name."
He did not give examples. But for now, the zoo's keepers have dubbed the cub, thought to be female, Flocke -- German for flake, as in snow flake -- because of its brilliantly white and fluffy fur.
Flocke was taken from its mother, Vera, on Tuesday amid concerns she could harm or even kill the newborn, and won't be returned to her. The decision was made after keepers saw Vera carrying the cub around in her jaws and tossing it around her enclosure.
Little more than a year ago another famous polar bear club in Germany -- Knut -- was hand-reared by his keepers and became a celebrity after being rescued when his mother rejected him.
He delighted thousands of visitors to Berlin's zoo who avidly followed his growth from a roly-poly cub to a full-grown adult.
Flocke's popularity is beginning to look like Knut's, and the Nuremberg Zoo now provides daily news conferences to give updates on its condition.
On Friday, zoo veterinarian Bernhard Neurohr said Flocke's eyes were still closed and the cub was sleeping beneath an infrared lamp to keep warm.
The bottle-fed cub now weighs 4.4 pounds and is about 13.8 inches long. If it cries, a nearby baby monitor alerts its four keepers.
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On the Net:
http://www.eisbaer.nuernberg.de
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