Zoo Surprises Adorable Polar Bear With Giant Frozen Salmon Cake For Second Birthday

This is the moment a polar bear tucks into her giant frozen salmon birthday cake that was skilfully shaped into the number '2' to represent her age.

The footage of Finja the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) celebrating her second birthday at the Vienna Zoo in Austria with a delicious salmon cake was released yesterday, 9th November.

In the video, Finja and her mum Nora can be seen excitedly approaching the giant fishy cake, which had been displayed at the top of a rock in their enclosure.

The bears spend no time admiring the cake and immediately start ripping chunks of salmon out of the frozen treat.

The mother and daughter quickly devour the giant cake and following the meal, they head to the pool to play with a ball and relax.

Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck, the zoo director, said that the zookeepers made the giant frozen cake with salmon, as it is Finja's favourite.

A trail of cod liver oil was dripped around the cake which helped Finja and Nora locate it with their strong sense of smell.

The cake took a lot of time to prepare, but it was destroyed in a matter of minutes after Nora knocked it over with her giant paws.

The cake split into pieces after hitting the ground, making it even easier for the bears to get their teeth into the large chunks of salmon.

Hering-Hagenbeck said that Finja has grown into a very healthy "teenager" weighing 185 kilogrammes (408 lbs) up from just 500 grammes (1 lb) at birth.

Nora is still considerably heavier than her daughter despite appearing to be the same size in the footage, weighing around 250 kilogrammes (551 lbs).

The polar bear is categorised as 'vulnerable' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

This ranking means that the species is facing the threat of extinction in the near future unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival are improved.

The polar bear is native to the Arctic Circle where it primarily hunts fish and seals.

A fully grown male bear can weigh from 350 to 700 kilogrammes (772–1,543 lbs) while a fully grown female can reach a maximum weight of around 250 kilogrammes (551 lbs).

Historically, polar bear numbers have been threatened by hunting, but today the biggest threat facing the giant white bears is climate change, which has led to extensive loss of their habitat.

Vienna Zoo is a participant in the European Endangered Species Program (EEP), which aims to provide a future for some of the world's most vulnerable species through breeding programmes and education.

Tiergarten Schonbrunn/NF/Peter Barker