The two polar bear cubs at the Tiergarten of the City of Nuremberg are both boys. At the age of three months, the two babies had to be vaccinated. While doing so, the zookeepers could find out the animals' gender. Polar bear Vera has been trained for two weeks to be separated from her offspring for a short time. It was therefore not completely unfamiliar for Vera to be fed by the zookeepers while two other zookeepers took the two little bears from their stable. The vets weighed the two cubs, marked and vaccinated them. After as little as three minutes the twins were back with their mother, who cared for her offspring as relaxed as usual.
The bears were vaccinated for leptospirosis, a feverish disease which causes severe damage to the inner organs. Being members of their animal family, the polar bears are very sensitive to this disease, which can be transmitted via wild animals such as, for example, rodents. During the vaccination the polar bears were implanted with a microchip as it is also used for dogs and cats. These microchips are the common way of marking animals and are subject to the species protection law. The two male polar bear cubs were also weighed while being held by district manager Thorsten Krist and zookeeper Anne Redmann. With their 12.7 and 12.55 kilograms, the cubs weigh fractionally more than her sister Flocke when she was their age. Back then, she weighed 11.9 kilograms. The names Gregor and Aleut were drawn per raffle ticket from all the names proposed by the bears’ zookeepers.
