Knut, world-famous polar bear, found dead
An October 2010 file photo of the Knut the polar bear, at the Tiergarten zoo in Berlin. / ODD ANDERSEN
BERLIN - He was the darling of Berlin, an international superstar, a success story of beating the odds. And now Knut, the five-year-old polar bear who spent his whole life raised by humans, is dead.
The cause of death is unknown.
The Berlin Zoo's bear-curator, Heiner Klos, said that Knut was found floating in the water in his cage.
Knut started life in the Berlin Zoo, the first polar bear born there in thirty years. For unknown reasons, the cub was abandoned by his mother, and was raised by his trainer Thomas Dorflein.
As the only polar bear ever raised by humans, Knut was an instant sensation. Ticket sales at the Zoo doubled in Knut's first year, and his fuzzy face could be found on everything from postcards to stuffed animals to bank debit cards.
Animal rights groups originally opposed the idea of humans raising a polar bear, saying he should have been left for dead.
But Knut's adorable face - and the clear affection between him and his trainer Dorflein - quickly won over skeptics.
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Here is my favorite U Tube video of them that I think you might enjoy:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZoRQBTqpOI
RIP to Knut and Thomas. Together again.
Two other polar bear cubs; abanndoned by their mother; were raised by humans here in the States.
Their names were Klondike and Snow.
A documentary was made of this and shown on PBS.
I don't like to see animals in cages either, but as polar bears are on the endangered list; everyone we can save is a miracle.
Valuable lessons can be learned about our own survival.
I hope the next time someone finds a abandoned cub; or even anailing adult; every attempt will be made to save them.
RIP Knut and Thomas. As jd2408 said - Together Again
Knut and his brother were abandoned by their mother for some unknown reason. Four days later, Knut's brother died, at something like only a few days old. You are talking about a bear cub the size of a guinea pig and totally helpless at this stage of life. Knut would surely have died too. What do you do? A lot of animal rights activists (and I am one) favored letting the cub die on its own, or actively putting it down.
In this case, Thomas Dorflein was assigned by the Berlin zoo to look after the cub (involving round-the-clock care, special/constant, etc. feeding). Was it the right decision? Based on a lot of documentary evidence i.e., on the relationship between Knut and Thomas, Knut took to Thomas quite well. Is it natural? Of course not. But I have looked at a lot of Knut video and he does not appear unhappy; to the contrary, he appeared to enjoy, in particular, his relationship with a human. Would Knut have been "happier" living in the wild? We would all hope so and think so at some level. But the fact is Knut would not have lived that life; he would have died like his brother and never lived naturally in the wild.
Knut served as a polar bear ambassador for millions of in-person visitors to the zoo, not to mention many more exposed to him through youtube and other media.
As one who cares deeply about polar bears and the effects of global climate change on their environment, i.e., the melting of the polar ice cap and effects on habitat and food availability, I think maybe maybe Knut's life was not in vein.