Featured Image Credit: Aquarium of the Bay
By Jessica Kittel
For the first time since 1992, a polar bear cub has been born in the United Kingdom. As reported by Business Insider, the cub was born on December 18th to proud parents Victoria, the 21-year-old mom from Germany, and Arktos, the nine-year-old dad from Austria. These two live with their newest family addition at the Highland Wildlife Park in Northern Scotland.
So far no pictures have been taken of the little cub as park staff does not want to disturb the new family. Due to the lack of photographic evidence, the park has yet to confirm whether the cub is a he or a she. They also aren’t entirely confident that there is only one cub in there.
However, they have managed to acquire a short audio clip from the den in which you can hear the baby bear.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland waited until the cub had survived his or her first few weeks of life before announcing that a cub had been born. As stated in the press release:
“While we are absolutely thrilled, we are not celebrating prematurely as polar bear cubs have a high mortality rate in the first weeks of life due to their undeveloped immune system and the mother’s exaggerated need for privacy, with any disturbance risking the cub being killed or abandoned.”
The polar bears should emerge around March at which point the cub or cubs will be around three months old. When they are finally introduced to the world they will be a far cry from the blind, two pounds, much more hairless cutie pies that they were when they were first born. By the time they make their debut in March they will weigh somewhere right around 24 pounds.
Can’t wait to see this little family of bears in March!
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