Polar bear cub makes zoo debut :

Flocke to force action on climate change

Never mind the burly polar bear Knut, here's the cute new cub Flocke. With all the fanfare of a movie premiere or record release, Nuremberg city and zoo officials introduced Germany's latest winsome polar bear cub to a public eager for its first live glimpse of her.

The furry four-month-old imp (mischievous being) has been tugging at their heartstrings by video and photographs for months.

"Not only Nuremberg, but the whole world has been in Flocke fever," said the city's deputy mayor Horst Foerther. He said the cub has attracted millions of hits on Google since the zoo decided to raise her by hand in January.

In her afternoon debut before television cameras, the chubby bear had to be coaxed (persuaded) out into the polar bear enclosure.

Then she slowly nosed around the rocks and grass with the curiosity of a toddler - keeping close to the zookeeper with her.

But she quickly gained confidence, eventually bounding through the grass and plunging into the water; paddling about for a few minutes before climbing out to nibble on the zookeeper's shoe to the delight of the television reporters providing commentary for the national live broadcast of the event.

Flocke, born on December 11 and then rejected by her mother, made her public debut at the Nuremberg zoo just as interest in the Berlin zoo's now fully grown polar bear sensation, Knut, seems to be waning. Knut was abandoned by his own mother in 2006 and was raised by zookeepers.

He became something of a Berlin zoo franchise, attracting more than a million visitors and inspiring a stuffed-animal, a magazine cover with Leonardo DiCaprio, a children's book and even a feature film.

But Knut has gone from roly-poly and cute to chunky and a little dangerous - a transition not lost on Flocke's keepers who advertised her introduction to the public with posters reading, "Knut was yesterday."

Flocke - German for "Flake," as in snowflake - was taken from her mother, Vera on January 8 for hand-rearing after Vera was seen tossing the cub around her enclosure.

Aware of Knut's star power, the zoo quickly set up its own polar bear cub website with regular updates - Flocke is a girl; Flocke's eyes open; Flocke learns to swim; Flocke walks on grass, for example - accompanied with photos and video for her adoring fans.

Now about 19 kilograms (42 pounds), Flocke has been romping around in a private enclosure, but is now on public display.

Zoo director Dag Encke implored people to use the interest in Flocke to force action on climate change, which is affecting the habitat of wild polar bears.

In that sense, Encke said at a nationally televised news conference with some 430 reporters, "Flocke is no more a polar bear, but Flocke is not a person - Flocke is an obligation, or a window into an obligation," he said.

- Associated Press