The polar bear – whose moniker is a portmanteau combining the name Wilbur and Bär, the German word for bear – was tucked into a transporter after a shot of narcotics at the Wilhelmina Zoological and Botanical Park for the journey.
Take a look back at baby Wilbär.
His new home will be the Orsa Bear Park in Grönklitt, where he’ll be provided with a lady friend called Ewa. The female polar bear arrived in Sweden just last week from Holland.
The 200-kilogramme bear was born December 10, 2008 to high hopes of increased visitor traffic, but he proved to be less popular than the Berlin Zoo’s superstar polar bear Knut, born two years earlier.
In recent months the adolescent carnivore has become more independent from his mother Corinna, even starting a few violent rows. One confrontation left her with an injured paw, and she has since shown less interest in playing with her son – spurring the zoo to send him to Sweden a bit sooner than planned.
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