Hamburg's little polar bear celebrates her first birthday

Animals - Hamburg's little polar bear celebrates her first birthday

Delicious food and new toys: Little polar bear Anouk from Hamburg's Hagenbeck Zoo celebrated her first birthday early on Monday. The zookeepers had draped surprises in the sea of ice for the polar bear and her mother. Anouk was born on December 19, 2022 in the birthing den of the polar bear enclosure. Since then, mother Victoria has taken great care of her offspring, as zoo vet Michael Flügger reported.

This was also evident on Monday in the Arctic Ocean: mother and cub happily devoured the multi-tiered cake. "The cake consists of a mixture of fish, mince, salmon oil, gelatine and a little cream to hold everything together," said zoo vet Flügger. Immediately afterwards, Anouk threw herself onto her toys and into the water, which was around five to eight degrees cold. The curious, boisterous and energetic polar bear girl not only had a bright orange fire hose tied into a cube, but also a large white round buoy. Throughout the morning, Anouk repeatedly jumped onto the two toys floating in the four-meter-deep and 30-meter-long moat, dived down, threw them through the air and jumped on again.

"The most important polar bear cub in Europe"

Anouk's birth marked the first time in 21 years that a polar bear had been born at Hagenbeck Zoo. Victoria - her mother - was last born there. Anouk's father Kap has already left the zoo. What is also special about Anouk is that she brings a breath of fresh air into the European polar bear gene pool. Hagenbeck Zoo is part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). And the valuable, rare genes of Victoria and Kap are extremely rare in the breeding program. Anouk thus helps to maintain genetic diversity. "This is probably the most important polar bear cub in Europe at the moment," said Flügger.

In the wild, the polar bear population is currently estimated at only around 23,000 animals. According to the Red List of Threatened Species, the polar bear is considered endangered. The loss of sea ice due to climate change is considered the greatest threat to its survival.

Anouk is wild, curious and loves salmon oil

If you stand by the glass window of the Arctic Ocean at the zoo when Anouk has been given new toys, you can watch the polar bear girl romp and play for hours. "She is incredibly playful, open-minded and curious. She romps around a lot and destroys a lot - as is the case with small children," said Flügger. Anouk was about the size and weight of a guinea pig when she was born. She now weighs 111 kilograms. Her great passion is salmon oil. "She'll do almost anything for it," said Flügger. Her daily diet consists of three to four kilograms of meat and fish. "And sometimes breast milk too - but really only to calm her down."

The name for the polar bear cub was put to a public vote. The choices were Smilla, Sunflower, Talvi and Anouk. Visitors to the zoo were able to vote. In August, pop singer Sasha finally named the polar bear girl Anouk.

Reasons why Anouk did not become Knut

There was no great hype in Hamburg as there once was around the Berlin polar bear Knut, who was bottle-fed by his keeper in 2007 to great media effect. Not only because the polar bear was still protected from the eyes of the public at the sweetest, clumsiest age, but above all because polar bear mother Victoria did all the parenting and not a human. "And that's clearly the better way for everyone. This is the largest predator on earth, no keeper is going in there," said the zoo vet.

The hoped-for 200,000 visitors per year, who actually flock to the park when fascinating wild animals are born, failed to materialize this year - "even though we ran the biggest advertising campaign in ten years", zoo director Dirk Albrecht told the German Press Agency. "We've never spent as much money as we did on Anouk." Nevertheless, the effect was rather meagre. In fact, around 100,000 fewer people came than usual.

In fact, the zoo was often in the media last year due to internal disputes between the management and employees or the works council. Some of the labor disputes were also fought out in the courts. Cute offspring - not only among the polar bears - almost got lost in the shuffle.

"The union ruined the whole thing in terms of communication and pushed the issue to the margins with their actions," said Albrecht. The dispute now seems to have been settled, a new company agreement is planned and Albrecht hopes that Anouk will attract many more people to the privately financed zoo with its 165 employees.