Finally I can say! Polar bear cub born 12 Dec 2013. Mother is Dumka (9 years old, born in the wild), it is her first cub. Father is Nord, 8 years old, born in Moscow zoo. Cub is doing well.
Dumka is good enough for cub . No photos at this moment. I'll post later link to video (bad quality, but better than nothing), when it is ready.
First polar bear cub's video link Honestly, it is a Dumka's video, you can only hear cub but hardly see because of too bright light. But there are more better videos. Coming soon
Too bright IR-light for obsolete night-vision camera Next time the den will be reconstructed and equipped with modern camera on the ceiling. Maybe even two cameras.
1.1.0 is impossible because cub is exist It is not sexed yet of course. Zoo keeps now it's parents - Dumka and Nord, and one more pair of polar bears - Piligrim (Pilgrim, Pim) and Aurora. All of "our" polar bears are belong to other zoos.
Oh, forgot that unsexed offspring has numbers too So it is the first breeding. What zoo has the rights for this new cub?
Moscow zoo. This breeding was "just in time". These bears live together for 5 years, and it was planned to transfer them back or change one animal of this pair in case there is no breeding this year. They had normal sexual behavior every year, so problem with fertility was quite possible.
For our zoo, this winter's breeding is failed because animals refused to mate. The offspring never survived. In last years, the female is being tranquilized instantly after giving birth, but she has the time to crush the cub(s) willingly before sleeping. After all, she is an useless hand-reared animal, and our male is from the wild... wish the things were in reverse. At one or two cases when cubs were successfuly rescued from mother, they didn't survive longer than 1-2 weeks, succumbing to infections with such bad immune system... An incubator, like one used for naked apes, might be handy, but funds for buying a new one are low
Now the little furball is clearly visible Frequent vocalizing is considered to be a sign of good health for bear cubs, right?
I think so. It is the first sign that cub is born (moment of birth is not always captured by camera) and that it is doing well, and this loud sound is very useful for keepers watching female. I have impression that cub is always crying
Atlantic walrus female Neseyka has returned from Tierpark Hagenbeck on April 18. Some photos and videos of polar bear cub.
In the beginning of August one of two polar bear cubs who lost their mother arrived to zoo from Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Cub is healthy and very active. It is a male, his weight is about 50 kg. Another cub, female, was sent to zoo of Gelendzhik. Polar bear cub who was born in the zoo in December 2013 is growing fast, his weight is 150 kg already.
The cubs (both males) were presented to public. They're hand-raised since being rejected by mother at age of 2 months. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R03BUqtpRAU[/ame]
Actually two Northern fur seals were born A few seconds video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJrWc0gFF74