The news that the parents of the lovable polar bear Hertha is shocked to be the brother and sister of a Berlin animal lover. A recently discovered defect revealed that the two are related.
Hertha was born in December 2018 in the Tierpark Zoo in East Berlin and named after a local football club. Her mother, Tonya, was born in Moscow in 2009, but it appears that a mistake was made during the recording. The zoo revealed today that Herta’s father, Volody, who moved from Berlin to a Dutch zoo in 2019, had the same parents as Tonya.
A biologist from the Moscow Zoo noted in the documents conflicting information about Tonya’s date of birth. Research has shown that there was intercourse with another female polar bear born around the same time. This genetic analysis has confirmed.
“This blunder is an unfortunate response to the delicate work that is being done in the European breeding program,” said Andreas Knirim, director of the Berlin Zoo. He noted that it was human error, and therefore did not blame the Russian Zoo for the “bear exchange”.
The discovery means that Tonya is no longer allowed to have offspring. She and Hertha will remain in Berlin for the time being. Experts say the incest origins of the young polar bear have no consequences for its health.
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