This story starts off a lot like the movie Up, in so much as it's DEVASTATING: Inukshuk is a polar bear whose mother was killed by a hunter and was found pawing at the door of a police station. He was brought to the Toronto Zoo, where he met a nice lady polar bear named Aurora and she gave birth to three cubs at the end of last year. Two of the three cubs didn't survive the first 48 hours.
The only surviving cub was brought to the Wildlife Heath Centre's intensive care unit, where he was watched over 24 hours a day. This is where the story gets happy: The little guy is now three months old and thriving. He was a "big personality" and is "very playful" (though the zoo notes that he "gets very sleepy after play time--just as babies do," WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE).
We posted video of the baby's first steps (here) and the zoo has carefully kept record of all of his milestones (here). But here are the two videos you need to see right now: The first time he was introduced to snow and, a week later, video of him playing in the snow like he was born to do it (which, technically, he kinda was!)
Now, this little guy needs a name. And the Toronto Zoo wants you to help name him. Here is the shortlist of names you can vote on, as selected by zoo staff:
Humphrey: "Peaceful Warrior", name was originally derived from the Germanic elements "hun", which means "bear cub," and "frid" which means "peace"
Lorek: From the word 'laurel' which is a symbol of victory
Orson: Latin origin meaning "bear"
James: James Bay is derived from the Southern arm of Hudson Bay. Hudson is the Toronto Zoo's previous cub, and is this cub's brother
Searik: Inuit for "beautiful"
Stirling: "genuine, high quality, pure"
We would be remiss if we didn't at least try to throw out a few names of our own. Here's what we came up with: Olaf, which is the name of the snowman in Frozen; Sven, which is the name of the reindeer in Frozen; and Elsa, which is the name of the ice queen in Frozen (it's technically a girls' name, but we think it could cross gender lines). Basically any name of a character from Frozen. Hey, have you seen Frozen yet? It's a great movie.
Oh and make sure you vote for your favorite polar bear name here.