Berlin has welcomed a new celebrity, a polar bear cub, to its Tierpark zoo with fanfare, high hopes for marketing—but so far, without a name.
The fluffy newcomer is almost four months old, and believed to be past the most dangerous period for zoo-born polar bears. Presented to the press on Friday and on public view since Saturday, the baby and her mother Tonja have been playing in a pool, nibbling on bark and generally looking cute.
Zoo officials hope that eventually the cub will be able to win public hearts as did Knut, a polar bear born at the zoo and rejected by its mother. Reared by humans, he became such a celebrity that he appeared on magazine covers and stamps, and brought in millions in admissions and merchandise sales. Knut died of a brain tumor in 2011 at the age of four.
