Pernilla is Wilbär’s new mother
May 19th, 2009 | By mervi | Category: Featured articles19.05.2009 – Source: www.expressen.se
The polar bear boy Wille, 1,5 years old, had to leave his mother Corinna in Stuttgart, Germany. However, he’s got a new mother now in Orsa. One thing’s for sure – the ‘polar bear mother’ Pernilla Thalin, 30, hasn’t got an easy job raising her child. Sometimes she has to get some help from cinnamon buns….
Wille – the readers of Expressen have given him that name – and the female polar bear Ewa, 3,5 years old, from Rotterdam have recently moved into the biggest polar bear park in the world in Grönklitt in outskirts of the village Orsa.
Wille aka Wilbär
Ewa
In due course they are supposed to fell in love with each other and get new, small baby bears to secure the survival of the threatened species. So far they must live in separate enclosures.
The director of the bear park, Pernilla Thalin, has already become a polar bear mother. It’s her mission to ‘make a polar bear’ of Wille who has never seen neither snow nor ice before!
- Wille is very curious. He likes most swimming around in the big pond. He still finds strolling along in the forest a bit scary, Pernilla Thalin tells us.
A jar with buns
Pernilla and Wille are learning to know each other.
- I’m trying to get a good contact with him. Getting contact is best done with food – he eats kilo salmon and meat and apples, carots, honey, fish liver oil and bread.
Wille is in a very bad mood when Pernilla is aproaching him and she’s met by an angry growl – but it gets better when she picks up the jar with cinnamon buns.
- He’s angry because he’s hungry. We let them be a little hungry now and then – it makes it easier to teach them things , Pernilla says.
Smart animals
- Are polar bears intelligent animals?
- Maybe you can’t compare them with dogs but polar bears are smart – they learn fast as a lightning where the food is!
- Can you go into Wille’s enclosure?
- No, I will never be able to do that. It would be intruding his territory and he would attack me immediately. I would hardly survive that. He weighs already 180 kilos, Pernilla Thalin says.
Article by Tommy Schönstedt
Photos by Jan Düsing
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Mervi, thank you for the article. The fotos are so nice.How good that Wille is so interrested in his new home And Wille is also a good name for Wibär.
)))
BTW, if I am hungry I am very angry too.
LG
Bea
Mervi,
Thanks so much for this update. I hunger for anything on my beloved Wilbar. Who told the Swedes they could rename my honey Wille?
So far he looks comfortable and being the focus of so much attention is going to help him settle down. In spite of the spoilt boy ‘tude, he’s still a vulnerable baby that must be wondering about the big change and his missing momma Corinna.
Let’s keep him in our prayers until we know for sure he has claimed the park as his own and is king of all he surveys.
Is it me or is anyone else noticing that Miss Ewa has a ‘tude? Maybe a tad snooty perhaps? Not criticising….just sayin’. A gal’s got to protect herself in these arranged marriages.
I do too Celinne look for news from Wil, for many reasons. One of them is the fact what a wonderful life he is going to have, half zoo, half wild, which is something we would all want for our Knuti to have.
Do you remember when Willie (lol) was a tiny little cub holding on to his mother’s side? When she went for a swim by herself the first time, Wilbar would run from side to side making sure his mom was all right. And now he faces a new frightening challenge of conquering a completely foreign territory that is hundreds times larger than what he was used to in Stuttgart.
Me thinks he’s going to grow into a very courageous strong big polar man soon.
And I think Ewa’s going to see that and fall in love with Will, Celinne. I guess a large enclosure grows big attitudes.
Bea, Celinne, Leaf,
Thank you for your comments!
Bea, I think Wilbär is enjoying his new surroundings – curious and maybe sometimes a little afraid of the huge area but I’m sure he’ll soon feels like home! Pernilla seems to be a very sympathetic girl and I’m sure she has already fallen in love with Wilbär!
Celinne, Wilbär would have become Wille anyway – just like Lars becomes Lasse, Nils becomes Nisse and Wilhelm, William or Wilbär becomes Wille. Well, Knut has become Knuti – hasn’t he? Besides, I don’t know if they actually changed the name – Wille might be just a nickname like Knuti is.
Leaf – ‘A large enclosure grows big attitudes’ – I like that!
Hugs from Mervi
Wille is on an adventure! I think he’s up for the challenge and if the cinnamon buns keep comin’ he’ll do well. xo k-j
Leaf, Mervi, Bea, Knuti Judi,
Leaf you are probably right. ‘A large enclosure grows big attitudes’ – Nice philosophy. But I am keeping my beady eyes on her. Miss Ewa is no sweet, ladylike Flocke from my observation. I really hope that she doesn’t turn into a shrew and beat the daylights out of Wilbar when they are placed together.
Wilbar was such a beautiful bear from birth and watching the footage of Corinna with him brought tears to my eyes. He is very special to us so Miss Ewa had better watch her virago herself with that ‘tude!
Mervi- Thanks for enlightening me -it is just that Wilbar is such a rich name full of innocence and it matches him so well. Wille is thin -you know- and it makes him sound so grown up! And I am not ready to let him go just yet.
Mervi, thanks for posting from Sverige! If it wasn’t Knuti who moved there at least it is Wilbar who seems like a major charmer and deserves just as much adoration (and reporting, photographing, etc) as our Knut…
Mervi, thanks for posting from Sverige! If it wasn’t Knuti who moved there at least it is Wilbar who seems like a major cutie-pie charmer and deserves just as much adoration (and reporting, photographing, etc) as our Knut…
Ha ha Celinne, I second that. Ewa better watches herself, and acts like a lady.
Secretly though I am hoping the duo doesn’t work out, and someone makes a brave decision to make Knut her husband. But pssstttt….. I didn’t say anything. I wish Willie the best of luck. He’ll need it.