Polar Baby | God's World News
Polar Baby
News Shorts
Posted: February 20, 2019

Workers at Tierpark zoo in Berlin, Germany, say their latest baby polar bear is “a perky, strong girl.”

Keepers and vets were able to separate the 11-week old bear from her mother Tonja for the first time last week. They gave the bear a checkup. Everything looks good! They also saw that the new cub is a girl. The baby bear does not have a name yet.

The cub is much heavier than a human baby. She weighs almost 19 pounds. Eventually, she will probably weigh between 500 and 600 pounds! Right now she measures 24 inches from head to tail.

In the wild, polar bears give birth in January. The mother bear will keep her cubs (she usually has two at a time) in the den she built. Like their mother, the cubs have thick, unpigmented fur that keeps them warm by filling with air and absorbing sunlight. In the spring, the mother bear will take her cubs out into the wilderness to teach them to hunt. Their hunting lessons last about 20 months. Then the cubs go off on their own.

Zoo workers watch the cub closely. Tonja's last two cubs died within months of birth. Baby polar bears often do not live long, in zoos or in the wild.  

A little female polar bear watches the camera after her first examination by the animal doctors at the zoo in Berlin, Germany on February 14. (Steffen Freiling/Berlin Zoo via AP)