Augo is Aalborg Zoo's newest polar bear cub...

Identity issues

Augo is at the age, where he is trying to decide, which animal he wants to be. At the moment he is appearently trying the giraffe on for size... See how Augo masters the task of carrying all his toys at once.
See the the fabulous polar bear show

Fashionable Augo  

Augo - as the little polar bear born in November is called - is doing well. He is curious and investigates the outdoor facilities together with his mother. See how Augo transforms a blue bucket to a trendy polar bear hat...
Watch Augo's blue hat show here...

Newborn polar bear in Aalborg Zoo 

Aalborg Zoo's 10 year old polar bear Malik gave birth to three cubs on the 20th of November 2010. This is sensational because polar bears often give birth to only two cubs. Malik gave birth a little earlier than expected - normally polar bears in captivity give birth in the beginning of December, however Aalborg Zoo was prepared and Malik was kept under observation in the maternity den. The maternity den had beforehand been equiped with cameras, so the zoo keepers could monitor the birth and make sure that everything was going according to plan.

The baby cub is a fighter

Unfortunately, two of the cubs died during the first critical days. This is not unusual for plar bears in the wild either, where one of the cubs often dies during the first days. However Malik’s surviving cub seems to be a fighter, and it is making all the noise that a newborn polar bear is known to do. Mother Malik takes very good care of her new baby, and it looks like the cub is getting all the milk it needs.

Newborn cub is an online celebrity

Like his half brother Milak, the newborn cub is already an online celebrity. Milak was the first of Aalborg Zoo's polar bears to be followed live via webcam. And many both local and international visitors logged on to Aalborg Zoo's website to see how he was doing. Aalborg Zoo expects that the newborn cub will have the similar effect on online visitors as well as visitors in the park. The newborn cub and mother Malik are staying in the maternity den during the winter period.

Big brother Milak...

Web makes baby Milak world famous

Not many baby polar bears in the world have received as much attention as this cute, furry little creature from Aalborg. Of course there was polar bear Knut in the Berlin Zoo. He became world famous, when his mother abandoned him, and he had to be nursed by a zoo keeper. But Aalborg’s little bear is famous for a completely different reason.
The mother bear in Aalborg has done an excellent job of looking after her baby. And thanks to the installation of a video camera in the maternity den, the whole world has been able to watch everything from the very first day.
This camera is a world sensation. Follow this link to see the polar baby bear live on web cam from Aalborg Zoo's homepage. 

Aalborg Zoo was the first

In fact, Aalborg Zoo is the first zoo in the world to install a web camera in a polar bear’s maternity den. Simply by visiting Aalborg Zoo’s website, at any time of the day or night, you can follow the activities of the baby polar bear in his nursery grotto. Watch him grow, witness his first shaky attempts at walking, see him fool about, hear him whine, when he is hungry or murmur contentedly, as he sucks at his mother’s nipple.

An enormous number of people have followed this baby bear on the internet, both in Denmark and abroad. “The first few days after the birth more than 30,000 visited the website to see him. Subsequent interest has been just as strong,” says Søren Sørensen, Information Officer at Aalborg Zoo.

When the baby bear leaves the den in the spring, he will be entering one of the best polar bear enclosures in the world. It was built in 1999 and allows the visitor to see the bears both under and above water. Visitors can also get amazingly close to the polar bears, thanks to the enormous glass panels that provide the view to the enclosure. In fact, people can stand as close as 30 mm from a polar bear.

World-Class Communication

The fact that Aalborg Zoo was the first in the world to offer a live transmission from a polar bear maternity den was no accident. Aalborg Zoo is one of the world’s leading players, when it comes to spreading knowledge about animals. Their goal is to make people more
familiar with the animals by teaching them about their lives and conditions in the wild.

Today Aalborg Zoo make use of all avalible options on the internet and through information technology. For example, you can download the baby bear’s hungry or satisfied sounds and use them as a ring tone on your mobile telephone! But Aalborg Zoo has not forgotten the traditional, old-fashioned method - talking and listening. The zoo keepers and all the other staffs at Aalborg Zoo are all educated oral communication, so they can answer any questions, their visitors may have.

Facts about the polar bears in Aalborg Zoo