In November, the biggest modern land predators, the stars of Mykolaiv Zoo - polar bears (lat. Ursus maritimus) Nanuk and Zefirka celebrate their birthday.
Nanuk was born on November 24, he is 8 years old. And on November 27 Zefirka has a birthday, she turns 9 years old. Nanuk and Zefirka are a friendly pair of our polar bears.
Mykolaiv Zoo is the only zoo in Ukraine where rare animals - polar bears live today. The appearance of a bear pair is an event of the decade for Mykolaiv Zoo, because the polar bear is one of the three most expensive animals.
The story of our bear pair is very interesting. In March 2014, Zefirka came to us from Moscow Zoo under the International Program. And in January 2015, Nanuk arrived from the zoo in the Czech city of Brno. At first they looked at each other, and then they became a real bear couple. Our polar bears staged amazing performances for visitors of the zoo. Adults and toddlers enjoyed watching the bears play volleyball in the water for a long time.
Later it became known that Zefirka is expecting a cub. How much effort, knowledge and experience it took for our staff of the carnivores department to have a cub from polar bears. Two walls were built in the premises of the bear house, which do not transmit noise. Near the enclosure of the female polar bear there was created a kind of "zone of absolute peace and quiet". We can say that for the bear Zefirka we created all the necessary conditions. And on December 8, 2017, the brightest event for a bear couple took place - the birth of a cub, she was named Smetanka.
Time passed, the beautiful white bear Smetanka grew up, and at the moment she was transferred from the enclosure of the bears to the "Beasts island ". This had to be done as soon as possible, as Smetanka's mother, Zefirka, is pregnant, according to the assumption of the zoo staff. Smetanka was occupying her mother’s enclosure while her mother was with the male Nanuk.
For the pair of polar bears Nanuk and Zefirka the enclosures were repaired. Now they live separately. A den for parturition and raising cubs has been prepared for Zefirka. From mid-November, a regime of silence was re-established near her enclosure.
Therefore, we urge our visitors not to shout near the bear enclosure, but to adhere to the regime of absolute silence!
The zoo staff sincerely congratulates our birthday bears and hopes for the birth of new bear cubs from the bear pair Nanuk and Zefirka.