Knut - the polar bear born at Berlin zoo

Having a bad day?

These cute photos of a polar bear cub in Berlin Zoo must surely cheer you up!

Link to story and photos on Spiegel Online.

That is one cute knut.

Video and polar bear blog (from the RBB, who have finally found a decent use for my GEZ fees).

Much cuter than the picture I saw in a tabloid recently of the cub being conceived.

Has anyone actually seen Knut live yet? When is he making his public appearances?

Probably be 10 million people there.

I reckon Knut is going to be a mascot for the city for many many years to come.

Anyone seen his older brother FCUK?

Report in the spiegel today saying that some animal activists reckno he should be put down as it is against nature to hand feed him. A bit controversial methinks.


Knut Should Be Killed, Say Some Animal Activists

Yes thats also a headline in Bild. They kept saying it goes against "das Tiergesetz", and I suppose the rules are the rules.

The argument is that Knut will be a badly adjusted polar bear having been raised by humans. However as pointed out in the quoted article, male polar bears are solitary anyway so his poor polar social skills will not be much of an issue. I reckon Knut will be a lot happier alive than dead, so its seems a bit narrow minded of animal protection orginisations to want him dead.

But of course die Tiergesetze are die Tiergesetze

oh ffs, why is this idea even considered? So if I understand that in the interests of the bear's welfare, animal rights [s]nutballs[/s] activists have considered Knut better dead than alive.

Do you really want him to grow up anti-social and be shot like Bruno? Nip the tendency in the bud, I tell you!

so if your rights as a "wild animal" haven't been respected, you deserve to die?

There's a HUGE difference to Bruno. Coming from wild animal country in Utah, I agreed with shooting Bruno (was just surprised it took that long to get him -- and I was surprised that he's the only bear around)--but once a bear figures out people have good food, and is not afraid of them, it's just a matter of time before a small child gets between him and his chickens...

But Knut is in a zoo! He's in a cage already! What's he going to do, splash people to death with his drinking water? How Schizophrenic are these animal rights acitivists? It's not okay to shoot a wild bear who is running free and a danger to humans, yet they think you should kill a little baby bear because he's too cuddly and likes the people who keep him in a cage?

Seems like people just want something to get upset about, but have no clear principles they are going by.

I say quatsch! The polar bear, Inuka, in our Zoo in Singapore has been living in the zoo since he was born 16 years ago and is still alive! His mother has lived well past the average 25 year life span for captive polar bears too! And in the tropics!!

God, I come from a Polar Bear area, and even in the Winnipeg Zoo, the polar bears cubs are born and raised in Captivity, with global warming there are going to be some huge problems in the Norther Countries with the bears, now they are walking into large towns and reaking havoc.

There is a poignant cartoon in the latest Private Eye magazine subverting the old Fox's Glacier Mints brand-mark; the polar bear on top of the ice-cube/mint is saying to the fox 'no, it's not a mint. This is all that's left of the polar ice-cap'.

Yes, the polar bear cub was rejected by its mother, and yes, in the wild Knut would have rapidly died. But he was born in captivity, and much as I feel a dis-ease about zoos in general, if they can preserve the diminishing gene pool of a species and actively engage in breeding programs to broaden it, then little Knut should be given the best chance he can to survive, even if by human intervention in a 'natural' process. And if interest in Knut and his threatened species is raised by cute videos of him playing in his sand-pit etc, all power to the media in that respect. Now, if only the innumerable other threatened species (innumerable because we just don't know by a long chalk how many species are out there) had as endearing a media cutey-pie as Knut to heighten their plight, maybe humankind would stop their rapine attitude to the Earth's resources RIGHT NOW!

* wanders off into la-la land following clouds and pretty butterflies *

Okay, it's not going to happen. Perhaps not until the oceans are lapping into our living rooms and drowning the cat. But at least in fifty years time we can look back at video clips of Knut and see what we're missing.

The Belin zoo has basically said nuts to the animal activists Knut is not getting the chop.

I normally like animal activists, but sometimes they're their own worst enemy. Even if they were right on this one, saying that the most gorgeous cuddly ball of fluffy white bear cub should be euthanised is simply bad PR. Technically they might even be correct, but they must be autistic sociopaths to think that kind of statement is going to convince the gerneral public that they are good for animals, and we should give them money.