Polar bear born at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie named Brodie

A polar bear cub born at a Scottish wildlife park has been named by a competition winner.

Brian Whitehead won a prize draw run by RZSS to raise funds for Scotland’s Wildlife Discovery Centre to name the cub.

The bundle of fluff has been named Brodie, which is a Scottish word for second son.

Brodie was born in December at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie to parents Victoria and Arktos.

Victoria had previously given birth to the pair’s first cub Hamish in 2017, who was the first polar bear to be born in the UK for 25 years.

In November 2020, Hamish was moved to Yorkshire Wildlife Park as part of a breeding programme.

Visitors to the wildlife park will be able to get a glimpse of Brodie from Monday, but staff have warned the cub will be getting used to his enclosure and will only be seen for short periods of time.

Vickie Larkin, carnivore team leader at Highland Wildlife Park said: “We are so excited for visitors to finally see little Brodie and want to remind everyone they must book their tickets in advance.

“He is doing very well and is growing more confident every day.”

The prize draw, which ran for two weeks, raised more than £70,000 to help the charity build Scotland’s Wildlife Discovery Centre at the park.

Competition winner Brian Whitehead said: “I went with Brodie in the end because of it meaning second son, the family name Brodie has close ties in the area historically, it is very Scottish.

“We can barely contain our joy because we had our first visit to the park last week, and it far exceeded our expectations.

“The next visit is going to be even more awesome since we will get to come back again for the ultimate experience to meet little Brodie.”