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 nutballs 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.

The activist, whose Tierschutzgesetz quote is reported by Bild, claims he has been quoted out of context (by Bild? No, really?). He says that his aim was to highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in the laws as, in a recent case, the law came down on the side of a zoo in Leipzig where a Lippenbärbaby was put down by lethal injection and it was the zoo director who successfully claimed that manually rearing animals leads to behavioural problems. As such, the activist reasoned, raising baby Knut by hand should also be illegal. The law is, after all, supposedly blind. Here's the FAZ article about it, complete with a gallery of cute baby bear pictures.

And here's a gratuitious one purloined from said article...

Gay polar bear at Berlin zoo:

He is so darn cute. My colleagues and I are all following his development closely (more men than women, if you can believe that).

Knut ist schwul, und es ist auch gut so.

The BBC can't bear the idea, either: Berlin rallies behind baby bear.

So it's ok to take an animal with a range of hundreds of miles and put it in a cage, but it's not ok to hand-feed the cub? Oh brother...

Congratulations! You're as ignorant as any other Bild reader! Admetus only pointed out five comments ago that what Bild wrote was taken completely out of context in an attempt to manufacture controversy, a claim backed up by BildBlog. But it's better to run around spewing stupidity like so many Bild-readers than to actually pay attention to the facts.

If you see it in Das Bild, it's a lie.

woof.

I think I want to shoot me some animal nutjob activists.

I think you want to improve you some reading comprehension, like of the post above you.

Baby Polar Bear video

Comprehend this:


It means kill the bear and not save its life. Backtracking on the fact that it is now older and able to survive is simply to contradict ones own belief in the face of public pressure. My comprehension is just fine, I suggest you start to read between the lines to improve yours. People don't always tell the truth and animal activists are more two-faced than the NRA.

He's quickly becoming an Internet superstar.

Knut, der kleine Eisbär

he is so cute, I wish I could take him home.

We could bearnap him?

yah, I could, but I know how big Polar Bears get and how hungry they can be, and that they can break down a door if hungry.

He would cost a fortune to feed...unless you fed him on choccies from the surgery?

nah, they need meat! Chocolate would just upset them.

Hmmm..meat...unwanted patients...that would take care of your workload!

hmm! you may be onto something there Renia, just gotta make sure the bears don't eat the wallets too.

The blog is now published in english and spanish too.

"Knut ist Gut"

His first appearance this morning. Some really good photos in the Spiegel article

Knut Swoons the Crowds at First Public Appearance!

polar bears are my favourite animal and watching those pictures... i want one!

Eurovol, tell me when and I'll join you. Animals are at our mercy and we should kill a baby animal because he wouldn't have survived in nature anyway? Those activits are five star psychos. Sheesh.

Please try reading carefully before going on a killing spree:



Note that the Yahoo and BBC articles are just repeating the Bild's misrepresentation of the animal activist's comments. Although there is this from the BBC article (which they also didn't bother to research themselves):


So maybe you want to go shoot some zookeepers?

Whatever. I speak fluent German and I listened to the German news on this topic. So I know what the animal activists's real intentions are. Try becoming fluent in German, it'll help you understand many things much better, including the news.

Whatever is right. I don't know why you assume I'm not fluent in German, nor whether this news report you listened to did any more than parrot the Bild article like so many other outlets seem to have. I do know that what's been linked so far are 1) articles that take the Bild at face value and 2) articles that explain the context and how the Bild was being sensasionalistic and misleading.

ain´t he cute...

Topics merged by admin

He is soooooooooo cute , I told my 2 girls" I want one " Its sad that I live so far away from Berlin.

Cute and in danger..

ahh... this might be a little 'out' there... and the animal guy's comments were taken out of context, to sensationalise them... however, wanted to share with TT what first came to my mind when I heard this post Dumping animals

I want Knut´s caretaker to take care of me, too...Rrrrrrrh.

Knut is a danger to us all! Kill him now!


"How many more, my friends? How many more?"

My first thought when I heard about Yan-Yan was that someone (human) was trying to make some kind of statement by killing her...

Ruthie, please, there is a line, please stand behind all the ladies who already lined up and want to be taken care of by the caretaker

What does 'KNUT' mean or stand for???