Flocke
Flake ( born December 11, 2007 in Nuremberg ) is a female polar bear (Ursus maritimus ), who was born in Nuremberg Zoo, and grew up there. Similar to the case of the polar bear Knut the birth and hand-rearing of polar bear triggered extensive media coverage. The city of Nuremberg can protect the brand " Polar Bear Flocke ".
Life
Flake was (* 2002 in Moscow) was born on 11 December 2007 of the polar bear Vera, for it was the first birth. Father is the polar bear Felix (* 2001 in Vienna). First, the bear Vera exemplary care for their young. On 8 January 2008, the bear left with flake the breeding cave and ran around in the enclosure, apparently in search of another shelter. They made an uneasy impression. She let the cub falling over again. Because of this unusual behavior, for polar bears saw the Tiergarten forced to separate the cub of the bear and you decided to use a hand-rearing. Only a few days before were two polar bears baby of another mother polar bear, Vilma, disappeared over the Nuremberg Zoo. It is believed that the two were eaten due to illness of her mother.
Flocke was raised by nurses since 8 January 2008. On January 15, she opened her eyes. The animal was first seen in the outdoor enclosure on April 9, 2008.
Flake was transported on 23 April 2010 together with her playmates Rasputin to Antibes on the Côte d' Azur. There, now she lives in Marineland, a theme park with the only sea water system for polar bears in Europe.
Media Coverage
The media began about the polar bear in Nuremberg to report, as the polar bear Vera was staying over and over again before the breeding cave and their offspring apparently neglected. The zoo management decided but for the sake of animal welfare, not to intervene in the natural rearing of young. With a hand raising the probability of an early death of the polar bear is higher than in a rearing by the mother. In addition, they wanted to prevent imprinting on humans, since polar bears that have been raised by humans, are subsequently less able, even raise offspring. For the Tiergarten line was attacked violently.
Since flake was bottle fed, every day new pictures were published of her. ZDF reported almost on a daily basis of the development of the bears and also presented compilations in the form of weekly reports into the network.
The city of Nuremberg called on to send in suggestions for the name of the polar bear. Subsequently, the city received 21,500 proposals within days. On January 18, a jury chaired by the Nuremberg Mayor Ulrich Maly for the name "flake ", the keepers had been used previously.
April 8, 2008 Flake was first shown before about 430 journalists and around 50 invited guests. This led to protests against the zoos of polar bears and their marketing.
The much-criticized poster campaign " Knut was yesterday. " Was set on June 12, 2008, and " climate change begins on the ground" by the poster campaign replaced.
Gallery
Flake is presented to visitors on 9 April 2008 for the first time.
Flake (20 April 2008)
Flake (May 2008)