A new Knut?

Yes I'm a Knut fan. Jumped on the bandwagon when I first saw his little button eyes, snow white fur and squishy paws. Now it appears there seems to be a Knut Mark II with the birth of another German little ball of fluff in Nuremberg Zoo.

After reading news articles about a fellow bear (Vilma) at the same zoo consume her two cubs, I was force to think a little more deeply about goo-goo ga-ing about captive cubs. Part of me can't resist the wanna-cuddle-the-furrball factor but then another part of me gets angry at people like myself whose interest was tickled by the cute factor.

The uproar directed at the Nuremberg Zoo for not intervening in nature's ways resulted in mother bear Vilma (presumably) eating her young. While cannibalism is frowned upon in the homo sapien world, people should realise that such an act is not uncommon in the animal kingdom. As much I would've preferred those two bundles of fluff survive (allowing me to goo and ga) unfortunately, nature took it's course.

I'm not pissed off that the zoo made such a decision. I am far more annoyed at the general public for criticising the zoo. The publc's concern probably stems from the fact that it is a polar bear cub - a potentially cute cub - which died. Reptiles eat their young too, as do fish and dogs. Would there be the same media attention and consequent uproar had the animal in question been a snake or a tropical goldfish? I think not.

That is how I realised I could not be a vet. I do not love all animals equally.

Ok, back to the topic. The cub that is now being hand-reared is the offspring of the other mother bear, Vera. The choice was made after seeing her pace around her enclosure with the cub in her mouth, dropping it every so often. Admittedly I gasped every time I saw the cub drop from her mother's jaw (video below). But it angers me to hear that Vera only started pacing when her cave was disturbed by a cameraman and that it appeared that the cub had been well-looked after prior to it's removal from it's mother. I will speculate that the cub, despite being born under the most artificial habitats (captive bear mother, non-Artic surroundings), would have survived past infancy under the care of it's own mother. That is what pisses me off the most. That the zoo interfered, bowing to public pressure and because of a cameraman's selfish desire to snap the first photo.

This could lead into a debate about the roles of zoos in society and the implications of hand-rearing a wild animal. Is there any point of hand-rearing an animal which would be incapable of surviving if released back into the wild? This will eventually lead to a discussion about global warming and then I will start feeling as though I'm not doing enough to help save the world. So I'll end the ranting here.

While I am overjoyed to see that another polar bear cub is to be hand-reared, I can't help but feel a little disappointed in myself. I'm just another sucker for the cute stuff, happy to retreat into my bubble of oblivion.

UPDATE: The cub has been christened 'Flocke' (Snowflake in German). It's a girl and is supposedly cross-eyed and I do wonder if that is from resultant head injuries. Nuremberg Zoo have also given Flocke her own webpage.