Toronto Zoo’s polar bear cub now ready for visitors

The Toronto Zoo is asking for help naming its newest polar bear cub, the only survivor of three born in November.

Zoo staff have already picked six names and are asking bear lovers to vote for their favourite on the zoo’s website, with the winner to be announced in March.

Choices include Humphrey, which means “peaceful warrior,” Orson, which is Latin for “bear,” Searik, which is Inuit for “beautiful” and Stirling, which means “genuine or pure.”

The other two names are Lorek from the movie “The Golden Compass” and James, for James Bay, which the zoo says would go well with the cub’s older sibling Hudson, named for Hudson Bay.

The zoo also announced Tuesday that visitors will now be able to see the three-month-old cub, since it has progressed well enough to be moved to an outside den.

The male cub was taken from his mother and put in the zoo’s intensive care unit a few days after his birth, when staff noticed he wasn’t moving as strongly following the deaths of his two siblings.

Since then, the zoo has released several YouTube videos on the cub’s progress, noting he took his first steps in early January and became more active and playful as he gained strength.

 

Watch some of the videos below:

Zoo officials say the cub will be in his outdoor den from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, but there may be times when he is brought inside so veterinary teams can continue to monitor his progress.

The cub still requires a lot of sleep and usually naps after playtime following each meal, so the zoo is asking visitors to respect the cub’s “quiet times.”

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