A German zoo, under fire for letting a mother polar bear eat its five-week-old cub, apparently, has bowed to public pressure, and decided to hand-rear its last surviving baby.

Their decisions to intervene, rather than let nature take its course, follows last year's worldwide campaign to save Knut, a young Berlin polar bear. Sue Turten reports.

The five-week-old cub was taken from its mother, Vera, after a public outcry in the German press. Polar bear mom eats her babies. Vera seen here is the bear in public disgrace, but in spite of her behaviour, the zoo in Nuremberg was going to leave their only surviving cub with its mother Vera, saying nature should take its course.

Up until now, we did not have any indication that the mother does not take exemplary care of her cub, therefore we clearly favoured a natural upbringing, just recently, we had clear evidence that the mother did not behave correctly any more, and therefore we intervened.

Comparisons have inevitably been made with Knut, the cub in Berlin, who was rejected by his mother last year, and reared by keepers in spite of protests by animal rights campaigners.

What can I say? I think it's not very different in nature, where the animals are on their own. Should they interfere here? I don't know what's right, but I think what they are doing is ok.

It's hoped this cub will not let all the publicity go to its head, Knut now has his own blog and TV show, he's been in Vanity Fair.