Animal Park Berlin - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1970 - 25 Pfennig

Berlin Zoo The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic publishes four multicolored special postage stamps depicting various animals from the Berlin Zoo. Animals of Tierpark Berlin In the year 1970, Tierpark Berlin (founded August 27, 1954, opened July 2, 1955) is 15 years old. For this reason, the International Association of Directors Zoological Gardens holds its 25th Annual Meeting in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. After twice stamp series of the GDR from Tierpark Berlin were inaugurated and helped to carry his name to all over the world, now again a set of four animals is to be issued, which brings particularly rare and attractive species to the representation. Each of the selected species has a special meaning for the zoo. It goes without saying that the choice of an animal stock of around 5000 forms was not easy. 25-pfennig value Malay bear, Helarctos malayanus Raffl. This small bear species from the tropical rainforests of Kalimantan (Borneo), Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula to Burma attracts attention with its short-haired fur, almost reminiscent of moleskin. He is kept in most zoos in the world, but only very rarely heard of a litter, and even then hardly ever a cub comes up. In Tierpark Berlin is now bred since 1961 with three bears and two bear men. In 1969, for the first time in two litters, one young man was born in the second generation. The Tierpark Berlin is thus the only zoo on earth, which has regularly learned to breed this species, which begins in their homeland, to become rare, with which he could add a new one to the numerous relevant successes with rare species with another notable form. The first cub was born quite surprisingly, because you do not look at the mother when she carries a cub, as it accounts for only about 1/2 percent of its own weight. At that time, the mother bear abandoned her child after seven weeks, so that she had to be taken over by the animal park manager's household for artificial rearing. This bear has now even children. How well this little bear species can climb has been proved enough often enough. On this occasion, of course, a wealth of interesting observations on the Malay bear could be made. One of the most remarkable is the statement that his gestation period was only two months five days. This is more than half shorter, as we know it from other bear species. Malay bears become so tame that z. B. the 1961 artificially reared bear is still so reliable today to their former caregivers that they can safely push their fingers into the dangerously reinforced mouth to suckle the bear. In this way, the zoo was able to work out the basics to propagate their stock in human custody so as to be able to maintain their species at all.