Happy Father's Day to Victor

Victor

Happy Father's Day to Victor.

Victor was born in 1998 in Zoo Rostock to Churchill and Vienna. His brother Vitus has been proven sterile. His sisters Vilma, Valeska, Venus and Victoria have produced cubs, but Victor has outdone them all, with 13 offspring. He is now retired comfortably at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in the UK, where he lives with his grandson Pixel, and three other male polar bears: Nissan, Nobby and Raspi.

His first son Rocky was born in Ouwehands Zoo in the Netherlands  in 2002, when Victor was just four years old. The mother was a wildborn bear named Vera. Rocky now lives in Belgium. He is the father of a daughter named Qannik.

Huggies

Henk

In 2005, triplets were born in Ouwehands to Huggies. Henk is now in Nuenen, and has fathered three sets of twins there. Ewa lives in Sweden in Orsa Bear Park, but has no cubs. Jelle lives in St. Felicien in Canada, where he fathered two cubs, Shouka and Kinuk, with two different mothers, Milak and Aisaqvak, in 2018. 

Sprinter

Victor's son Sprinter, who looks a lot like his grandfather Churchill, was  born to Huggies' daughter Freedom in Ouwehands in 2007. Sprinter is a new father in the zoo in Hannover. Milana gave birth to a daughter, Nana.

Walker, on the right, with his friend Arktos at Highlands Wildlife Park

In 2008, It was Huggies' turn again to have Victor's cubs. She gave birth to Walker and Swimmer, named for diapers. The cubs' birth was filmed and used in a famous TV documentary. Swimmer was much smaller than Walker, but seemed fine. However, only a week after their public debut, in Mid-March, Swimmer had a medical emergency. Something had burst, and he died in the pool. This condition may be why he had been so small, about a third the size of Walker. Huggies and Walker grieved for a long time. 

Sesi with daughter Nanuq

Another set of Victor's twins, Sesi and Siku (now Taiko), were born in 2010 to mother Freedom, Huggies' daughter. Sesi now lives in Mulhouse France, where she had a daughter Nanuq in 2017. Taiko also lives in France.

Lynn with Imaq in Copenhagen

Luka in Wuppertal

Victor's twins Lynn and Luka were born in 2011 in Ouwehands to Mother Huggies again. Lynn now lives in Copenhagen and had a daughter Imaq last year. Luka lives with Anori in Wuppertal.

Akiak and Sura as cubs

Freedom with cubs Sura and Akiak

Victor's last cubs, Akiak and Sura, were born to Freedom in 2014. Akiak now lives in Rostock's newly rebuilt polar bear habitat. Sura still lives in Ouwehands.

Victor's grandson Pixel lives with his grandpa at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, which has just reopened

Victor is king at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Happy Father's Day to a great dad and grandpa.

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.

Happy Father's Day to Victor

Victor enjoys his Project Polar home.

Serving as the elder statesman of polar bears at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in the UK, Victor is enjoying his retirement in the company of an unusual polar bear group, with Victor and three younger males sharing several large rambling habitats.

The rocky slopes of Project Polar.

The senior bear at YWP, Victor, has fathered 13 cubs with three different mothers. One of his current companions is his grandson, Pixel.

Victor roaming along the lake

Victor was born in Rostock Germany in December of 1998, so he will be 20 years old this fall, still fairly young. But he has fathered so many cubs, and his sister Victoria (1996), Vilma (2002, died last year), twins Valeska and Venus (2004) have also given us lovely cubs, and the family of their parents Churchill and Vienna are well represented in the polar bear population. The sixth of the "V" cubs, Vitus (2000) is considered sterile. In the summer of 2014, Victor was sent to Doncaster to the YWP as the first bear in Project Polar. 

Victor on the rolling rocky hillside

The ladies in his life

Victor has spent most of his life in Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen, the Netherlands, where he first shared quarters with older polar bear lady Vera (21), who gave birth to his son Rocky in the fall of 2002, when Victor was just four years old. (Rocky now lives in a zoo in Belgium with Blanche and their daughter Qannik born in 2011.)

2002 was a very busy year at Ouwehands Zoo. In March, mother polar bear Huggies returned to Rhenen from her stay in Sweden, with her 4 month old daughter Freedom. In August, just before Rocky was born, Victor was sent to the Amsterdam Zoo, where he lived for a year in a very sad bear pit, to allow Huggies room to care for her cub. In December, shortly after Victor left, Vera gave birth to Rocky.

I don't have a lot of information about Vera, just that she was born in 1981, and died at age 27 in 2008 in Skandanavisk Dyreparke in Kolind, Denmark, which opened their polar bear habitat in 2006. Rocky was her only cub, I believe.

Huggies

Huggies was wildborn on Wrangle Island in Russia in 1993, and rescued as a young cub from an ice floe. She was sponsored by the diaper company Kimberly Clark and flown to the Netherlands, where she lived for four years, then moved to Kolmarden Sweden, where she gave birth to daughter Freedom in December of 2001. Then she and the cub moved back to Ouwehands in early 2002. months later.

Freedom with cubs

More cubs

Huggies with one of Freedom's cubs at Ouwehands Zoo

Between mother and daughter, Huggies and Freedom, Victor sired a dozen cubs.

In 2005, Huggies created a sensation in Ouwehands when she gave birth to triplets, Henk, Ewa and Jelle, all three named after keepers. Henk is now in Nuenen, the Netherlands, Ewa is in Orsa in Sweden, and Jelle is in St. Felicien in Canada.

Henk, one of the triplets, now in Nuenen

Freedom gave birth to Sprinter in December of 2007.  In February 2010 he moved to that tiny enclosure in Amsterdam, for just two months, but then to a wonderful big place in Hannover, Germany.

Sprinter, on top, inherited the fierce large head
of Victor's father Churchill.
 He now lives in Hannover Germany with his friend Nanuq

Huggies gave birth to Walker and Swimmer in December, 2008, filmed and shown as part of BBC's Frozen Planet. Swimmer stole everyone's hearts in the coming out of the den video put out by the zoo, for he was so tiny compared to big Walker. Then there was that very sad Sunday in March, 2009, when Swimmer did not come out of the water after swimming with his mother. Something in his chest had burst, and he had died. Huggies retrieved his little body and the polar bear family grieved.

Walker on the right, with his friend Arktos
in Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland

So there was just Walker. When he was 2 years old, in May 2010, Walker moved to Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland where he lives with his friend Arktos, and across the park are Victor's sister Victoria and her cub Hamish.

So by summer of 2010, it was just Victor, Huggies and Freedom at Ouwehands. 

Freedom

But then in November, 2010 Freedom gave birth to Sesi and Siku (later Taiko).  The next year it was Huggies' turn.

Huggies

In December 2011 Huggies had twins, Lynn and Luka. At this point, the two moms, mother and daughter, were dealing with four cubs between them, and it seemed to work to raise them together in the large enclosure with that wonderful deep pool. These were amazing days, with Freedom and her older cubs, and Huggies and her younger cubs, splashing and playing for the visitors and on the Explore webcam broadcast around the world.  Two moms and four cubs all living together.

Eventually, these four cubs grew up on went on their way.  Sesi moved to Mulhouse in France and Siku became Taiko and went to LaFleche in France. Lynn moved to Vienna and then to Copenhagen.  Luka went to Wuppertal in Germany. 

Victor's son Luka in Wuppertal

Victor had played his part, as father to so many cubs, but while the moms raised the babies, like other polar bear fathers, he spent his days in the old enclosures off to the side, alone.

Akiak and Sura with mom Freedom

In August of 2014, Victor retired to Doncaster in the UK but not before adding to his legacy. In November 2014, a few months after Victor left, Akiak and Sura were born to Freedom.

Victor has grandchildren too. 

Henk fathered Pixel and Noordje, who were born in 2012, and Nickie and Simona, born in 2015, in Nuenen, with Frimas as Mom. Five year old Pixel now lives in YWP with his granddad Victor.

Two of Victor's companions at YWP are his grandson Pixel, on the left,
and Russian bear Nisson, on the right.

Sesi is mother to Nanuq in Mulhouse Zoo in France, with Vicks as the father.

Victor's daughter Sesi, with his granddaughter Nanuq

Life in YWP

Young Nobby carefully approaches Victor

Victor enjoys his naps and wandering around the many wild acres at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. For a long time, he and Nobby did not get along, or maybe Nobby was afraid of him, but now harmony is restored.

Victor with a chunk of meat. Nobby sniffs, then walks away.
 He would never steal meat from Victor.

Victor chases after Nobby.

Victor catching up with Nobby

Project Polar area has three large enclosures with large ponds, and they are planning to open another area, to make this the largest polar bear habitat in Europe.

Victor at the lake.

Victor with his keepers. Sometimes he likes to be inside.

The bears can choose to be out and about, or to be in the nighttime shelter, whenever they like. There are often ducks to chase, and many good things to eat and play with are hidden here and there by the keepers. Life is good in retirement.

Victor on the move.

In another story, I will tell about the three young bears who are companions to Victor, as the park looks forward to welcoming a new bear from Korea to Project Polar.

Taking a stroll through Project Polar.
 The habitat resembles the Canadian Tundra with its terrain and plants.

Handsome Victor