Some slashbacks to the year 2016

31.12.2016 by Mervi

Again a year is gone and a new is about to begin. Just like all years even the year 2016 had it’s ups and downs – it had both happy and sad moments. I planned to make a short summary about what’s happened in our animal world but only after Januari I had to give up the idea. So much has happened that it’s impossible to serve it all in a nut shell. For those who want to look back I recommend to take a look at the archives month by month.

However, I want to share some ‘flashbacks’ with you.

The year started with very happy news. In the Tierpark Berlin there was a wonderful surprise on the New Year’s Day – a baby elephant was born during the night. The sweet lolifantje got the name Edgar and to our great pleasure he’s doing fine! I wish Edgar already a very happy first birthday!

Of course, we were delighted by many more newborn sweet animal babies during this year but we also had to say ‘goodbye’ to many dear friends.

Aika, Vilma and Menschikov have now reached the Eternal Ice Fields.

Many of our friends have also moved to new homes. Nela and Nobby left Hellabrunn for Emmen and Doncaster. Lale from Bremerhaven joined Nela in Emmen. Siddy from the Zoo Berlin lives now in Wuppertal. Vienna lives in France and our Fiete moved to Hungary – just to mention a few ‘travellers’.

I also want to remember three very special ladies:

Lady Fatou reached the respectable age of 59 years! I’m looking forward to celebrate her 60th birthday!

Katjuscha is the last of the Golden Girls but she’s still going strong. I was happy to be able to admire her in December.

I met Vienna in Rostock in April – more beautiful than ever. Due to the reconstruction of the polar bears’ area in Rostock she moved to France. I send her my best greetings and hope to meet her again in Rostock in 2018.

The sunshine story of the year is the story of Tweetie – the little common swift that Britta-Gudrun rescued and helped to recover and get strong enough to fly to Africa with it’s fellow birds. Maybe Tweetie will visit Britta-Gudrun next Summer ….

My personal highlights were our visits to Rostock, Orsa and Berlin. Only a couple of weeks after our Berlin trip we heard the terrible news. This year had a sad ending so I want to wish all Berliners a more peaceful and a happier new year!

Even though Knutitours and Knuti’s Weekly are edited in Malmö our base has always been Berlin so our motto will always be ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’!

However, we had a wonderful time in Berlin and can be happy about a new polar bear baby in the Tierpark!

In Februari – maybe on Valentine’s Day – there was great love in the air. Tonja and Wolodja just couldn’t hide their feelings …. 🙂

….. and this is the result of those tender moments! A beautiful baby bear! We don’t know yet if the cub is a girl or a boy but who cares – he/she is soooo welcome!

Finally I want to thank all the reporters that make Knuti’s Weekly so special. Without mentioning any names I want you all to know how grateful I am and how much I appreciate each and every report! I hope our co-operation will continue even next year. Let’s make the year 2017 rock!

I’m sure the polar bear babies in Berlin, Munich, Aalborg, Tallinn and in Columbus will help us! 🙂

I hope there will be new reporters and story tellers next year. Please, don’t hesitate to send your photos, reports, photos, videos, stories, collages, poems – whatever you make! There are so many other blogs publishing news and, of course, even KWM does that but the ‘cream of the cake’ are all the personal reports so, please, don’t hesitate to send your stuff to me! The email adress is knutisweekly@gmail.com

I also want to thank many zoos for their co-operation and generousity with their information and photos! Since we can’t visit all the zoos all information is very much appreciated. We love our four legged friends and want to follow their lives as much as possible.

I mustn’t forget my friend Fiete! When I heard he was moving to Hungary I felt I had lost my buddy. Luckily we have polar bear friends in Hungary keeping us updated. Our boy has already met Zora, the older lady in the zoo and soon a sweet polar bear girl from Russia will join him, too. I wish all the animals and the keepers in the Sóstó Zoo a wonderful new year!

Fiete has been my great inspiration during the year so who could be more suitable to join me when I wish you all a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!