PIPALUK

Deb Canham Artist Designs, 'Deb's Lil' Gems'

2½", Aug. 2007, Snow white upholstery velvet baby polar bear. Fully jointed, light blue neck bow.

LE 300

Pipaluk, a male polar bear, was born at London Zoo on the 1st December 1967. (The only polar bear cub previously reared successfully at the Zoo had been Brumas – a female.)

The name ‘Pipaluk’, the ending of which rhymes with book, was chosen from a list of Inuit (Eskimo) names – it means ‘the little one’.

Pipaluk’s parents, who had arrived as young cubs from Moscow Zoo in 1960, were called Sam and Sally. They were named after the Zoo’s bear keeper Sam Morton and his fiancée.

Pipaluk left London Zoo in 1985 when the Mappin Terraces (which housed all the bears) were closed, and died at the age of 22 years in a Zoo in Poland.

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