First polar bear cub born in the UK for 25 has left Scotland for England

Hamish was born at the Highland Wildlife Park in December 2017

Meet Hamish! Isn't this little polar bear cub the cutest little guy EVER!?

Hamish is now three-years-old and he's in the news because he has moved from his home in Scotland to a wildlife park in England.

Hamish is the first polar bear cub to be born in the UK in 25 years, and this week he arrived safely at his new home, the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster.

The 400-mile move took several months to plan, and involved vets from both parks as well as transport specialists.

Hamish in 2020 in his new home

Since he was born, Hamish had shared an enclosure with his mother Victoria at the Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore. His father, Arktos, is in an enclosure in another part of the park.

The plan is for Hamish to be on his own while he settles into his new home, then he's going to move into the park's big reserves.

The park hope he will become friends with another polar bear, Nobby, who moved to Yorkshire in 2016 when he was around the same age that Hamish is now.

There were already four other polar bears at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, but two of them, Pixel and Nissan, have just moved to France where they will become part of a big European breeding programme for polar bears.

Kim Wilkins, who is the carnivore team leader at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, said "he is a lovely bear and I can see he will be very happy here. We are hoping that he will become best friends with our youngest bear, Nobby."

Hamish and his mother shared an enclosure in Scotland

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) had always planned to move him to another zoo once he was old enough to leave his mother.

In the wild, polar bear cubs usually leave their mothers after two to three years.

Hamish was born in December 2017 and his name was chosen through a public vote.

Thousands of people visited the park to catch a glimpse of the cub after the enclosure he shared with Victoria was reopened to the public in March 2018.

Hamish left the Highland Wildlife Park for Yorkshire on Wednesday

Rachel Williams, senior animal keeper at Highland Wildlife Park, said the "playful" bear would be missed by everyone at the park.

She said: "Hamish has made a tremendous impression on the thousands of people who visited the park since his birth and helped to highlight the threats many species face in the wild."