The low attendance figures could be a hard blow for zoo officials, who had reckoned with record attendance based on the crowds that descended on Berlin last year to visit Germany’s original celebrity polar bear cub, Knut.
Visitors may have avoided Snowflake, or Flocke in German, because they didn’t want to deal with the crowds expected to come see the baby bear, Nuremberg zoo spokeswoman Nicole Mögel told German news agency DDP.
“It could seem a bit daunting,” Mögel told DDP, which reported that she seemed at a loss.
Just 30,000 people visited the Nuremberg zoo over the warm and sunny three-day Pentecost holiday weekend.
When zoo officials introduced Snowflake to the world – and 430 journalists – five weeks ago, Director Dag Encke said he anticipated up to 25,000 visitors a day would storm the zoo gates to see the bear.
The zoo added staff to deal with the expected crowds, Mögel told DDP.
“But we’ve seen better numbers on other Pentecost weekends already,” she said.
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