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Knut the polar bear walks in the Berlin Zoo Tuesday, April 3, 2007. Knut is the German capital's hottest celebrity at the tender age of 17 weeks.
Knut, the polar bear cub, has his first public appearance at the Berlin Zoo Friday, March
polar bear cub, peeks around the legs of zoo director Bernhard Blaskiewitz during its first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo on Friday, March 23, 2007.
Knut, the polar bear cub, rolls in the sand during his first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo on Friday, March 23, 2007. Television crews and photographers jockeyed with hundreds of excited children at Berlin's Zoo on Friday, all eager for a first glimpse of the fuzzy white polar bear cub who has captured hearts across the globe.
Knut, the polar bear cub, has his first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo Friday, March 23, 2007.
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Knut, the polar bear cub, rolls in the sand during his first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo
Knut, the polar bear cub, has his first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo Friday, March 23, 2007. Television crews and photographers jockeyed with hundreds of excited children at Berlin's Zoo on Friday, all eager for a first glimpse of the fuzzy white polar bear cub who has captured hearts
Keeper Thomas Doerflein, left, gets a smack from Knut, the polar bear cub, at its first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo.
Knut, the polar bear cub, plays with his keeper Thomas Doerflein as he has his first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo Friday, March 23, 2007.
Combo shows Knut the polar bear cub playing with a blanket during his first public appearance in the Berlin Zoo.
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Knut runs
Knut, the polar bear cub, looks around
Keeper Thomas Doerflein, left, gets a smack from Knut
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Originally posted by 798:cute!
sad thing is polar bears r going to die off as gloral warming arise. alot of polar bears r drowning in ocean.
Very sad indeed.
They swim, they get tired and hungry, but there's no place for them to land (since most large chucks of floating ice in their natural habitat have melted due to higher global temperatures), so they drown and die.
It's a sad fact...and humans are responsible.
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Dec 8, 2007
Knut celebrates his first birthday
Crowds throng the Berlin Zoo to visit the cheeky polar bear who was abandoned at birth and raised by a human
NO CROISSANTS: Knut celebrates with a birthday cake made of fruit, vegetables and rice. The polar bear has been on a diet because of his weight. -- PHOTOS: AFP, REUTERS
BERLIN - Berlin's famous polar bear Knut, who was rejected by his mother but went on to win the hearts of millions across the globe, celebrated his first birthday on Wednesday.
There was a cake and free entry for kids to the Berlin Zoo, which pulled out all the stops to fete its star attraction.
He has gone from a fluffy white powderpuff of a cub to a full-grown polar bear with a cheeky curiosity and a penchant for muddying his coat by rolling in the dirt.
'He's so dirty. They should have given him a bath,' said five-year-old Leni Schmidt, who came with her mother and a friend to watch the bear munch his birthday treat of fresh fruit, vegetables and rice - topped with a toy wooden candle.
The zoo estimated that some 2,000 people had visited the birthday bear by noon and a steady stream were still heading towards his pen, despite the cool weather and overcast skies.
Yet Knut himself seemed more interested in playing with his toy candle and licking the crumbs from the platter that bore his birthday treat than in the crowd of well-wishers.
The zoo said the Knut craze has generated up to 10 million euros (S$21 million) over the past year through ticket sales that have more than doubled and the licensing of Knut toys, books and other trinkets.
Among fans on Wednesday was Sabine Haelter, wrapped in a polar cub-imprinted scarf, who had travelled from central Germany to be at the zoo for the event, and Berlin native Marion Maetzeld - a member of the zoo who visits regularly.
'We wish him a huge polar bear cake and later a nice lady-bear as a mate,' said Maetzeld, snapping pictures of Knut from her perch on a boulder.
Weighing just 810g at birth, he has bulked up to more than 110kg and in July had to be put on a diet because of concerns that treats - like his favourite croissants - were piling on the pounds.
That means he won't be allowed a slice of a giant birthday cake baked in his honour - made from 300 eggs, 15kg each of flour and sugar and 10kg of marzipan. Slices were sold to onlookers and will go to the zoo's foundation.
Abandoned at birth along with his twin brother, who survived only a couple of days, Knut first attracted attention when Berlin's media picked up the story of his main caregiver camping out at the zoo to give the cub his bottle every two hours.
The story angered animal rights activists, who tried to sue the zoo for cruelty to animals by preventing nature from taking its course when the cub was rejected - even if it would have cost him his life.
By that time, Knut was a three-month-old white fur ball, with button eyes and his own fan club. He had been photographed dozens of times - including for the cover of Vanity Fair - and had attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the zoo.
Now that he is grown, zoo officials say they do not have room to keep him permanently and are considering offers from zoos in Europe, with an eye to finding him a mate.
Thomas Doerflein, who raised him by hand, cuddling him and playing with him in addition to feeding him from a bottle, told Germany's mass-circulation Bild on Wednesday that he hoped the bear would soon find a new home in another zoo.
'A spacious enclosure. A female partner. At some point, Knut needs to leave me,' he told the paper.
AP
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