Anori and Luka part ways

Luka and Anori in Wuppertal 

It has been a busy week for nine year old Luka. 

Tuesday was Luka's birthday at Zoo Wuppertal in Germany, where he has lived with Anori for seven years.

On Wednesday, he climbed into his transport box, which had been put into his area a couple of weeks ago so he could get used to it.

Welcome to Project Polar at YWP 

Today, Luka finds himself in Yorkshire Wildlife Park across the English Channel, able to see and sniff his new companions, 7 year old Nobby and 3 year old Wee Hamish, separated by some small space and some bars. 

After a few days, when he adjusts to his roomy and grassy new environment, Luka will be introduced to the other two male bears. Hamish is a new arrival too, just come from Highlands Wildlife Park in Scotland a month ago. Hamish and Nobby already seem to be fast friends.

The meadows at YWP may still smell faintly of Pixel and Nissan, two other male bears who recently left for France. Luka's father Victor lived at YWP for many years, before his recent death. 

 

Luka and Anori getting friendly 

Luka and Anori

Luka and Anori on the stairs steps in Wuppertal. 

Luka and his twin sister Lynn were born December 1, 2011 in Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen in the Netherlands. Their parents were wildborn Huggies and Victor, son of Churchill and Vienna.

Luka in the water

Anori on the steps

Anori was born in Wuppertal very late in that same polar bear birthday season, on January 4, 2012. Her parents were Victor's sister Vilma, and Lars, father of the famous Knut.

Luka in the underwater viewing area at Wuppertal 

Anori in front, Luka in back, in the Mother Child area

When Anori and Luka were nearing the age of two, Anori's mother Vilma moved back to Rostock, where Lars then lived. Young Anori needed a playmate, so Luka came from Ouwehands. The two of them grew up together.

Anori and Luka in the main enclosure, heading toward the diving platform

Ready to dive

Luka in the Mother Child area 

So for the past seven years, Anori and Luka have been playing, splashing, running and swimming together 

Luka grabs the crazy egg

Anori and Luka in the mother child area 

Luka on the platform, and there is a viewing area behind him

Luka and Anori with their toys

The polar bear enclosure at Wuppertal was built about a century ago, and at the time it was very forward thinking. A hundred years ago, most zoos kept polar bears in cages. Wuppertal was one of the first to embrace the revolutionary idea of  Hagenbeck's habitats without bars, where the animals can move about freely and naturally. The stylized enclosure was built of slabs of silvery white granite, featuring a large pool, stairs and diving platform. 

Luka on the bottom step

Luka and Anori in the pool 

While Wuppertal's ancient enclosure cannot compare to the new state of the art facilities of some of the other zoos, I have rarely seen happier bears than at Wuppertal. Innovative toys and puzzles give them lots to do and think about, and the keepers are always looking for new ideas for activities and enrichment. 

Luka and Anori always had lots of different toys, and they get creative

About ten years ago a cozy mother child enclosure was built onto the back of the living quarters, a sheltered area of soft surfaces and a shallow pool area in front of the viewing window. Anori is the only cub to have been raised there. Anori and Luka would swim in the big pool area and then run through the building and out the back to sleep or play or have a snack in the little garden, then back and forth again. All day long. 

Luka with his ring

Of course Anori and Luka have had each other too, and they became compatible friends, very good at sharing.

Luka

It is customary for keepers to go along for the trip and stay until the bear has adjusted to new people and environment. 

Luka and Anori, follow the leader

Facebook photos today show that Luka has arrived at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and already explored one of the grassy areas on his own. 

Luka says goodbye to Wuppertal 

He will find a very different kind of home at YWP, with four large bear enclosures with natural ponds, rolling grassy meadows and stone shelters. It is all very spacious and natural. There are even ducks and other birds to chase.

Anori with her toys

And where is Anori going? I thought maybe Rotterdam, which has two large enclosures, one for Olinka and one for Wolodja. There is probably room for one more. Karlsruhe has had three bears before. Maybe she could go there? We will just have to wait and see. Her birthday is coming up in a month. Will she celebrate again in Wuppertal, or be in her new home by then?

The boys' club at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Pixel and Nissan at play

It is an unusual and wonderful arrangement for polar bears at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Instead of the usual single polar bear, or a male and female, YWP has four male polar bears living together, soon to be five male bears this fall.

Victor

The patriarch of the group, Victor, has been retired from breeding as he has already sired many cubs. The other three are young males, just on the brink of adulthood.

Victor guards his food from young Nobby

The fifth bear arriving this fall is an older bear, the last polar bear in Korea, from a zoo where they are wisely giving up keeping polar bears.

All during the spring breeding season, and well into the summer, the four bears were kept in two separate areas. While Nobby and Pixel had been great playmates, with the coming of Spring, Nissan became very possessive of Pixel's attentions and would chase away and threaten Nobby or Victor if they wanted to play with Pixel. Even if they were the same size, you could tell which was which by their body language. Nissan was always guarding the much larger Pixel.

Video: Pixel and Nissan at play, Nobby watches

Pixel on the right, with Nissan

While Nissan and Pixel share an enclosure, senior bear Victor and young Nobby  have had to work on their relationship by spending time in a second area. Previously Victor was quite stern with Nobby and his young companion would stay away. Now they are much more tolerant of each other's company.

Nobby playing by himself with a water toy

Nobby is also good at playing by himself, finding some toys and swimming about in one of the big ponds, playing his own little games.

Pixel and Nissan in one of the sheltering caves

Recently, with breeding season over, the four bears are visiting back and forth somewhat and getting reacquainted. Nobby and Pixel can be playmates again. Maybe, if Nissan allows it.

Victor being in charge over young Nobby

Victor was born in 1998 in Rostock, and has fathered 12 surviving cubs, plus grandchildren, so has been retired to Yorkshire as the senior gentleman of the group, as his genes are well represented in the European polar bear family. He will be 20 years old this fall, still young, but he acts as if he were much older but still enjoying the bounty of life.

Pixel and Nissan

Pixel is much larger than Nissan, but Nissan is dominant

Pixel and his twin sister Noordje were born in Nuenen, the Netherlands, in November of 2012, so Pixel is now five and a half years old. Their parents are Canadian wildborn Frimas and father Henk, one of Huggies' triplets. Henk's father is Victor, so Pixel is now living with his grandfather.

Pixel and Nissan

Nissan in front, Pixel in back

Nissan was born in the Gosudarstvenny Zoological Park in Russia in December of 2013 so is four and a half years old. His parents are wildborn Dumka and Moscow born Nord (brother of Vera).

Nissan, closest, Pixel facing us

Pixel and Nissan. The central holding area can be seen behind them.

Nissan and Pixel  with melon that was tossed into the water by keepers. In this way, the bears must forage for their food as they would in the wild.

Nobby and his twin sister Nela were born in Munich in December of 2013, so are the same age as Nissan. Their mother is Giovanna, and their father was the late Yoghi, both Italian bears. 

Video: Nobby playing

Nobby is good a playing by himself.

The keepers provide a variety of interesting toys.

Nobby with a log in the big pond.

The enclosures have sheltering caves to provide shade
 in summer and protection from wind in the winter.
 Here is Nobby.

Nobby at play He has just hauled the blue canister out of the pond.

Pixel's twin sister Noordje and Nobby's twin sister Nela are now living together, with Bremerhaven sisters Lale and Lili in Emmen, the Netherlands in another newly built zoo. At this zoo, there are only young girl polar bears at Emmen. Noordje is the oldest.

Victor with his meaty snack. Nobby comes near but won't dare take it.

Victor was the first to arrive at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, in August of 2014. Victor's grandson Pixel came next, in March of 2015. Nissan arrived later that year in October. Nobby came in February of 2016.

A fifth polar bear will be arriving in November. Tongki, a 24 year old male, has been living in a too small enclosure in Everland Theme Park south of Seoul Korea, but he will be coming to YWP to enjoy good companionship and wild open spaces.

Victor approaches and Nobby runs away.

Project Polar is an innovative habitat for the bears, based on the spacious natural habitats at Highlands Wildlife Park in Scotland.

 Yorkshire Wildlife Park is built on a former farm visitor center, and the vision was to provide habitats for rescued zoo animals, and other zoo animals needing a home. It opened in 2009 with a hundred acres.  

Several of the 13 rescued Romanian lions.
There are eight left, living in several separated areas.

In February, 2010, the park rescued 13 Romanian lions from desperate circumstances, and gave them a 10 acre home. 

Land of the Tigers opened in 2011, followed by Leopard Heights, the largest leopard enclosure in the world. Here you can see the extremely rare Amur Leopard.

Amur Leopard

The entrance to the polar bear area.

Project Polar, one of the largest habitats for polar bears in the world, opened in the summer of 2014 with the arrival of Victor.

Ringed lemur family. Two of the moms have babies right now.

YWP also has a wonderful lemur walk-through habitat, African painted dogs, several black rhinos, giraffes, zebras,  recently arrived okapis, and so much more.

Makibo, the black rhino with the frilly ears.

One of the Amur tigers, one of the ladies, I believe.

The polar bears are currently enjoy three large rolling habitats with pools, and a central holding area, and the park is creating a fourth habitat.

Pixel and Nissan in the wanter.

During my visit, most of the fun was with watching Pixel walk about and Nissan guard him, rarely leaving his beloved friend. They would spar and fight and play. Nissan would get very jealous when Nobby was near the fence, and would try to get Pixel away. Nobby would stand by the fence, curious, but also wanting to play with Pixel, his old playmate.

Pixel leads the way, Nissan is not far behind.

Nobby wants to play too,
 but it would be too dangerous when Nissan is so possessive of Pixel.
This was in May.
 At present the four bears are being reintroduced to each other.

The keepers suspect that this is because the young boys have no female bears, and are practicing courtship behavior anyway. Nissan seems to be the most sexually mature of the three youngsters. Nobby is behind them in development.

Video: Pixel and Nissan playing and fighting

Pixel

Pixel, the oldest of the three, weighs 500 Kilo,, and Nissan is 360 kilo. You can really see the difference. Nobby weighs 330 kilo, and old Victor is the largest, lumbering about at 630 kilo.

With the springtime mating season over, and hormones stabilizing, the four bears are being introduced to each other. Pixel and Victor are enjoying roughhousing. Nobby is also happy to have Pixel back as his playmate.

Pixel on the left, Nissan on the right

The keepers will be bringing in the new bear, Tongki, in November when hormones will be at their lowest ebb. It will be interesting to see how the two senior bears get along, Victor and Tongki.

And now we have just heard that four rare Ussuri brown bears from Japan will be coming to the rehabilitation center in the YWP.  It is all part of the YWP's mission to provide homes for animals in need. These new bears will be arriving very soon. 

The Yorkshire Wildlife Park will mark its 10th anniversary next year, and already it has made its mark on the world of animal conservation.

Victor lets Nobby know who is in charge.

Victor, the oldest bear at present.