It's a boy! Polar bear born in Berlin gets first check-up

It's a boy! Polar bear born in Berlin gets first check-up

BERLIN - A polar bear cub born at Berlin's Tierpark zoo two months ago is a male, the park said on Friday.

The cub was born on Nov. 3, but staff at the zoo were only able to separate it from its mother, Tonja, to carry out its first examination on Thursday, after spending weeks gradually approaching the den to gain her trust. "The little one did really well and was very curious," zoo director Andreas Knieriem, who carried out the five-minute examination with a zookeeper and a vet, said in a statement.

The zoo said on its website that the young bear was 67 cm (26.5 inches) long from nose to tail and weighed 4.6 kg (10.1 lb).

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The park is now searching for a name, with a local radio station and newspapers collecting suggestions.

The cub has big pawprints to fill.

In 2006, Knut, a polar bear born at Berlin's other zoo, the Zoological Garden, became the centre of an international media frenzy when he was reared by keepers after being rejected by his mother. He died prematurely in 2011.

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