My Polar Bear Friends and Friends of Polar Bears: Tierpark Berlin

There are changes afoot towards consolidating the zoo polar bear population. Some people will not be happy to lose their local polar bears.

Wildborn Qannik and a pumpkin at the Louisville Zoo

The Species Survival Plan, which had governed the moving around of polar bears for decades, gave way about a year ago to the Polar Bear Population Alliance, a federally coordinated effort between the AZA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Their focus has changed the way the polar bear population of 37 bears is managed, to focus on multiple bear groups, probably of one male and several females. In the past many zoos had a pair or a single bear. Now the effort aims to consolidate the population into fewer zoos, in order to facilitate breeding. Some of the zoos currently with polar bears will find themselves with empty habitats.

Crystal nursing twin boys
Kallik and Kallu in the Toledo Zoo.

Ten years ago, we had over 60 polar bears in the US. Now we have 37, with many of them elderly. The way things have been going, the population trend is downward fast. In addition, the gene pool has been shrinking and now we have a majority of the younger bears descended from Crystal (and except for the last set of twins, father Marty).

Certain laws don't allow Canada to send their rescued cubs to any other country. And the US has a law that doesn't allow any polar bears to come into our country. Crystal came from Belgium, but that was before the prohibition law was passed in 2008. In fact we used to trade bears back and forth with Europe. The two older ladies in San Diego were Canadian rescue cubs.

Wildborn Kali at the Detroit Zoo

There has been one victory, that the Department of Fish and Wildlife now allows rescued Alaskan cubs to be part of the breeding program. This affects females Qannik in Louisville, Kava in the Alaska Zoo, and the male Kali now in Detroit. Fresh genes, if all goes well.

We have two male proven breeders, Lee and Nuka. Lee is in Columbus with Aurora, and there may very well be cubs from that pairing this year. They are already the parents of Kulu, who is now in the Como Zoo.

Lee at the window, Aurora on shore in Columbus.

Meanwhile, proven breeder Nuka is in Toledo with elderly Crystal, who is likely too old and deserves a quiet retirement. Even if Crystal were to have cubs, it would be yet more Crystal offspring. Maybe Nuka would be better paired with a daughter or granddaughter of Crystal. Nuka also has a twin brother Koda who languishes alone in Memphis. I don't understand this.

Nuka, when he was in Detroit. Suka and daughter Astra in foreground.

There is a lot of discussion about the most recent match being made between half brother/sister uncle/niece in the US. That is the bringing together of Laerke, currently in Tacoma, and Kallu, who is in St. Louis. Laerke and Kallu have the same father, Nuka, and Kallu's mother is grandmother to Laerke, so very closely related on both sides.

Baby Kallu, with his mother Crystal, in Toledo

Laerke is also a rather special bear, with some health concerns, and is very tiny at only 400 pounds. She was raised by keepers, as she was quite frail at birth and needed a lot of extra care just to keep her alive. She had a grizzly cub companion Jebbie as a childhood companion.

Laerke as a cub in Detroit

Jebbie and Laerke as playful cubs.

Twin sisters Astra (back) and Laerke in Detroit.

We already have several situations with related bears: Hope is with her Uncle Hudson in Brookfield. Neva is with Nikita, who is half brother to Neva's mother in Hogle Zoo. Astra and Kulu are first cousins in Como Zoo, their mothers Suka and Aurora are sisters. It is getting more and more tricky to find suitable mates with the limited gene pool.

Family ties

I thought I would look into several of the interesting inbreeding situations that have happened in Europe. These match-ups were not intentional, but they did produce offspring.

Hertha as a cub in Tierpark Berlin

Little girl Hertha was born December 1, 2018, in Tierpark Berlin to Russian born pair Tonja and Wolodja.

Hertha and mother Tonja

It was discovered after the birth of Hertha, when both parents were genetically tested, that Tonja and Wolodja were both offspring of Simona and Wrangel in the Moscow Zoo. In the year Tonja was born, Murma also gave birth in the Moscow Zoo, and due to "clerical errors" (sloppy recordkeeping) on the part of the Russians, Tonja's records were swapped with another cub. So Tonja and Wolodja were brother and sister. There were suspicions of this when Wolodja first was sent to Berlin, but some corrections were made in the studbook and everyone was assured that they were not related.

Wolodja

After DNA tests showed that Wolodja and Tonja were siblings, Wolodja was sent to another zoo, while mother Tonja raised her daughter Hertha at Tierpark Berlin, and there they both are to this day. Both Tonja and Hertha were put on the "do not breed" list. Hertha seems to be perfectly healthy and happy. She was even the subject of a story in People Magazine, with adorable phots.

However, there were some dark days at Tierpark Berlin in the years before Hertha was born.

November 3, 2016, Tonja gave birth to twins, with the girl dying in days. Hopes were high for the surviving cub. Fritz, yes he lived long enough to gain a name and many cute photos in the news. But in a matter of just a few days, mid March 2017 at age 4 1/2 months, Fritz sickened and died of multiple organ failure and hepatitis.

In December of 2017, Tonja again gave birth again, with the girl living for 26 days before passing away.

Tonja and Hertha play

Berlin rejoiced again with the birth of Hertha, but questions, which had arisen when Wolodja first arrived from Moscow, surfaced again. The DNA tests were done, and it was shown that Wolodja and Tonja were brother and sister. The European zoo association said that they would not allow a situation in which adult brother and sister would be together, so Wolodja was moved to the Netherlands. He is currently in Rotterdam, with another male bear.

Polar bear cubs, in zoos and in the wild, have a 50 percent mortality rate, and this may explain the fate of the earlier cubs, but we will never know.

Yoghi in Munich

Yoghi and son Blizzard

Yoghi was born in 1999 to Bimba and Romeo in Pistoia Italy. His father Romeo was also the father of Bimba.

Blizzard in Hamburg

And then there was a second incident of inbreeding in this same family in that Italian zoo. In 2006, Bimba gave birth to Blizzard, with Bimba's son Yoghi as the father. So Blizzard was the product of two generations of parental inbreeding. Blizzard spent many years in Hamburg, never fathering a cub with Victoria, so he was tested and found infertile. Was this a result of inbreeding? We don't know.

Yoghi went on to father three more cubs with a female bear who was NOT his mother. Giovanna and Yoghi became parents of beloved Nobby and Nela in in 2013, and Quintana in 2016.

Ballyba

Ballyba, who was born in 1990 in Aalborg Zoo in Denmark, and at almost 36 is now considered the oldest polar bear in the world, living in Japan, She was the offspring of father Miki, and Miki's own daughter Nuka II. Ballyba has one daughter, Peace, but Ballyba declined to raise her, so the keepers took over. Obviously, having some inbreeding in her background did not affect Ballyba's longevity. She is reported to be in good health for her age.

Ballyba's sister Malik nursing Nuka and Qilak
(father was Lars) in 2017.

Ballyba is sister of Malik still in Aalborg, born ten years later. The inbreeding mistake was avoided this time. Ballyba and Malik share the same mother Nuka II but Malik's father was unrelated Nanok.

In the earlier days of polar bear keeping, breeding was haphazard and not kept track of very well. And zoos housed many more polar bears, often with males and females all kept together, with no one keeping track of parentage.

Currently, much more care is taken. All the bears are recorded in a studbook, and matches are supposedly thoughtfully arranged. Young cubs can be identified with sub-dermal chips. And there are a lot fewer polar bears to keep track of.

Hertha BSC, a longtime Berlin sports institution,
has made this little polar bear cub part of its family

All of Berlin celebrated the news of the polar bear birth at Tierpark Berlin. She was born December 1, 2018 to parents Tonja and Wolodja, although papa Wolodja had moved to Berlin Zoo, and then to the Netherlands to give peace and quiet to Tonja and her baby.

Little Hertha and Mom Tonja

As Hertha plays,
tasting and smelling is part of the experience

Hertha posing for her fans

A hug for her ball

Many fingers were crossed for the cub's survival, for Tonja had lost three cubs in the past two years. Fritz lived to be three months old, long enough to get a name, and a little girl last year who died after surviving almost a month. The mortality rate for young cubs is about 50 percent in zoos, maybe worse in the wild.

Hertha waiting for the ball to swing just right

Acting nonchalant

Does the ball suspect?

Just ignoring the ball, but getting ready to pounce.

But this little girl was strong, and made it through the first three months just fine. In early April, Berlin's Fußball team Hertha BSC announced that they had adopted the cub, and her name would be Hertha (pronounced Herta).

Spotted on one of Hertha's visitors. She has a lot of new fans.

Berlin's soccer team had been founded in 1892, and named after the steamship Hertha where its founders had met and made plans to form the team well over a century ago. Hertha BSC has made financial contributions in support of the cub, and thus gained naming rights.

At the gate of the Tierpark, announcing Hertha's new sponsor and name

Hertha is thinking with her tongue out.

It was fitting that the team gave the cub a blue and white soccer ball with the team's name on it, her name, on the day her name was announced.

Here Hertha tries to charm the ball with her smile

Hertha plays with her foot, while the ball waits

When I visited Hertha at the end of May, the six month old cub was a bundle of energy, teasing and wrestling with her mother Tonja over a new strap toy.

Time for a milk break

She needed only brief periods of rest, and a few minutes at her mother's milk bar, and then back to playing and swimming.

Feet ready

Hugging the ball

Giving it a push

"Tor!" She scores

At the end of the day, she decided she needed a little soccer practice, so she happily played with a suspended ball. Sometimes she would run away, then return and pounce. She liked to swing the ball, and wait for its return, then bat it again.