Germany's New Knut

Shunned by his mother, polar bear Knut was saved from demise by care-taker Thomas Dörflein at the Berlin Zoo. Two polar bear babies at the Nuremberg Zoo weren't so lucky.

When one zookeeper in Nuremberg checked the cage of Mama Bear Vilma on Monday, he found no sign of the little ones. Dag Encke, director of the zoo, said Monday: "We presume she's eaten them."

The cubs may have been ill or dead already when Vilma devoured them.

"Predators are known to eat their offspring when there's something wrong, or when the mother knows she cannot raise them properly," Encke told AP news agency.

Mixed bear signals

The zoo apparently became aware of a change when keepers stopped hearing the howls of the cubs over the weekend, but they believed that meant Vilma was taking care of her offspring well.

But on Monday, when she came out of her cave alone and paced the cage nervously, one keeper became alarmed and searched the stall.

The German Association for the Protection of Animals said the Nuremberg Zoo should have acted sooner.

"We are against keeping and breeding polar bears in zoos," the association's head Thomas Schröder said, adding however, that a zoo has a responsibility once it takes on the task. "That means: every animal has a right to life."

Knut forged the path

Knut certainly can attest to that. Rejected by his mother as a baby, his keeper Dörflein bottle-fed him in Berlin. Since then, once-cute, now-killer Knut has been living the high life of stardom, including a knock-out number of zoo visitors, television appearances and even book deals.

Animal protectionists have said the zoo had better keep a close eye on how a second bear named Vera, who gave birth to a cub in December, handles her cub.

Zoo director Encke on Monday, though, wasn't worried: "We going to stick to our policy, also with Vera." That included not entering the bear's den until at least six weeks after the birth since it could otherwise disturb the animals' natural behavior -- a policy prescribed by the European Animal Conservation and Breeding Program.

A zoo spokesman on Tuesday agreed, saying the keepers had acted "absolutely correctly" under the guidelines.

But late Tuesday afternoon, the zoo announced it would err on the side of caution, remove Vera's baby, and bottle-feed it like Knut. The zoo made the decision after observing how Vera had brought out the cub from the den and tried to hide it in shrubbery.

Nuremberg Zoo's deputy director Helmut Mägdefrau told AP news agency: "She's completely nervous." Vera was apparently disturbed by a camera team that had approached the den without permission.

Vera Junior has since been separated from its mother, and appears to be in tip-top condition.

"The cub's safety is our main priority," Mägdefrau said.