Stuttgart's baby bear, Wilbaer, was born on December 10, but the zoo is only just sending out the birth announcement. And, Wilbaer's mom has been taking good care of her cub thus far, not providing for Knut and Flocke's media-ready "tragic-orphaned-polar-bear" plot line. Nuremberg zoo director Dieter Jauch says the zoo kept Wilbaer away from the media until now because "we are not out for the big money." But, the bear's name has already been trademarked.
Still, that's nothing compared to cash polar bears Knut and Flocke. Between January 2007 and February 2008, 23 trademark applications were filed related to "Knut." He's also got a movie deal, and he helped the Berlin Zoo to increase revenue by 30 percent, raking in almost four million additional dollars for the animal prison. Flocke, who was born just one day after Wilbaer and only given a name 7 weeks ago, has already had 14 trademark applications filed on her name. And, Flocke puzzles, games, and stuffed animals were released at the beginning of February, just in time for the Nuremberg Toy Fair.
That's right world. We may have war, famine, looming economic depression, Ralph Nader, and global warming, but we'll always have fluffy white adorable polar bear cubs—at least those born in captivity.