One immensely endearing polar bear has been photographed frolicking about in the snow with his best friend – a cuddly teddy bear.
Kali the white, fluffy bear was taken in by staff at Alaska Zoo after they found him alone and scared on the north-west coast.
The one-year-old’s mother is believed to have been killed by hunters and he struggled to cope without her. The adorable cub was given the brown bear as a gift from the keepers and he immediately took a liking to it – the two are now inseparable.
After Kali’s rescue in March last year the hunt was on for a permanent space in a different zoo. In May of this year he was transferred to Buffalo Zoo in New York and ‘is doing very well.’
‘He’s become a close companion for Luna, [another] cub who was born here last November and hand-raised by our staff,’ said a spokesman for Buffalo Zoo.
‘The first day was a little nerve-racking for everybody, but now they’re playing.’
A spokesman for Alaska Zoo said that returning Kali to the wild wasn’t possible when they initially found him.
‘Unfortunately orphaned cubs will not survive in the wild without their mothers care during their first few years so returning them to the wild is not an option.
‘Our staff have well over 100 combined years of experience in working with orphaned cubs.’
