Polar bear named Brodie
A polar bear born in December at the Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore has been named.

Although the cub was born in December, his gender was only confirmed during a health check last month.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) held a competition to find a name for the new cub. Brodie was chosen as his name.

Brodie shares an enclosure with his mother. The site has been closed off to park visitors.

Brodie's older brother Hamish was the first polar bear cub to be born in the UK for 25 years. Hamish was born at the same park in December 2017. Previously twins were born at Flamingo Land in 1992.

He was popular with visitors to the park, at Kincraig near Aviemore, and could often be seen playing with empty barrels in a pond in an enclosure he shared with Victoria.

As part of the breeding programme for the species, Hamish was moved to Doncaster's Yorkshire Wildlife Park in November 2020.

A boar (male) weighs around 700kg, while a sow (female) is about half that size. As polar bears live most of their life on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean they are classified as marine mammals.

Polar bears are actually Black, their skin is black and their fur is translucent and only appears white because it reflects visible light.

They can smell their prey up to a kilometre away. Polar bears have a very strong sense of smell, which they use to find seal breathing holes in the ice. Once it has found the hole, the bear will wait patiently until the seal comes up for air to attack. They can even detect a seal in the water beneath a metre of compacted snow.

The population is decreasing and are classed as a vulnerable species.