Knut (polar bear)
Knut was an orphaned polar bear born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He became a tourist attraction and commercial success. On 19 March 2011, Knut unexpectedly died at the age of four. His death was caused by drowning after he collapsed into his enclosure’s pool.
About Knut (polar bear) in brief
Knut was an orphaned polar bear born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He became a tourist attraction and commercial success. On 19 March 2011, Knut unexpectedly died at the age of four. His death was caused by drowning after he collapsed into his enclosure’s pool while suffering from anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. In December 2006 he had taken legal action against Leipzig Zoo to prevent them from killing a bear cub rejected by its mother. His case was dismissed on the grounds that raising the animal would have been against the law of nature. In March 2007, German tabloid Bild-Zeitung carried a quote by animal rights activist Frank Albrecht who said that Knut should have been killed rather than be raised by humans. He declared that the zoo was violating animal protection legislation by keeping him alive. The Berlin Zoo rallied in support of the bear, vowing not to harm him and rejecting the suggestion that it would kindise him. Around 400 journalists visited the Berlin Zoo for the first time on March 23, 2007, to meet Knut. The cub was largely responsible for a significant increase in revenue, estimated at about €5 million, at the Zoo in 2007. Attendance figures for the year increased by an estimated 30 percent, making it the most profitable year in its 163-year history. Knut’s diet began with a bottle of baby formula mixed with cod liver oil every two hours, before graduating at the Age of four months to a milk porridge mixed with cat food and vitamins.
As a result of this coverage, Knu became a minor celebrity in Germany and was awarded Berlin’s Medal of Merit in honour of his continuous care for the cub. His caretaker, Thomas Dörflein, died of a heart attack on 22 September 2008, aged 44 years old. The two cubs were born on 5 December 2006, and his unnamed brother died of an infection four days later. He was the first polar bear to have been born and survive in the Berlin zoo in over 30 years. He had a twin brother, Lars, who was originally from the Tierpark Hellabrunn in Munich, who died in July 2007. Knu was born to 20-year-old Tosca, a former circus performer from East Germany who was born in Canada, and her 13- year-old mate Lars. The pair were born together in December 2006 and had an uncomplicated gestation, with Knut and Lars being the first to survive past infancy at the zoo in more than 30 years, but Lars died in August 2007. In early March 2007,. Bild ran a quote from an animal rights. activist that decried keeping the cub in captivity. Children protested outside the zoo, and e-mails and letters expressing sympathy for the bear’s life were sent from around the world. The cub became the center of a mass media phenomenon dubbed “Knutmania” that spanned the globe and spawned toys, media specials, DVDs and books.
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This page is based on the article Knut (polar bear) published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
