Nuremberg Zoo welcomes new polar bear cub

A polar bear cub has opened her eyes for the first time, after being born just over a month ago at Nuremberg Zoo in Germany.

The bear, which keepers are calling "Flocke" until she is properly named, is already quite a celebrity and keen holidaymakers are travelling to Germany just to visit her. Weighing just 2.5 kilograms, she is bottle fed with milk every four hours, something that visitors can see happening for themselves.

"By now I can distinguish her different noises and know what the little one wants," Petra Fritz, one of Flocke's keepers, told journalists. "I rub her tummy, for example."

The polar bear cub has captured the imagination of audiences across the world because she was removed from her mother, Vera, last week, amid fears that the large polar bear would harm or kill her newborn.

Similarly, last year, a polar bear at Berlin Zoo, Knut, attracted thousands of visitors after he made international news when his mother rejected him. He was hand-raised by the zookeepers in a similar fashion.

Nuremberg Zoo is one of many attractions in the famous city, alongside many famous historical monuments from the middle ages and a beautiful city-centre which stands on the bank of the river Pegnitz.