No More Croissants for Cute Knut

Knut, the world's most famous polar bear, is off the scales after eating too many snacks and has been put on a diet. The Berlin Zoo said Knut's handlers have been told to stop feeding him extra rations of croissant, fish and meat.

Polar bear superstar Knut, whose celebrity has waned since he stopped being a cute cub, has been put on a diet because he is getting too fat, the Berlin Zoo announced on Tuesday.

"Knut has become noticeably round," zoo vet Andreas Ochs said. "So we shall be feeding him restrictively."

That means no more croissants and extra portions of fish and meat for the shaggy youngster, who turns eight months on August 5.

He is now believed to weigh around 60 kilograms but the zoo can't be sure exactly because its scales only go to 50 kilos.

Ochs said Knut's helpers will make sure he doesn't snatch any extra rations from the kitchen table or from baskets while he watches them prepare his dishes.

Being a few pounds overweight is common among zoo animals because they don't get to move around as much as in the wild. Berlin's lions and tigers are forced to fast for one or two days each week to prevent them getting too chubby.

"We can't do that with Knut because he's still growing," said Ochs.

Knut the Polar Bear Receives Millionth Visitor

Knut got his millionth visitor Thursday, a couple from Rotterdam who were delighted to see the star polar bear in the fur. But the days of the Knut show may be numbered, Thomas Dörflein reveals.

Berlin's celebrity polar bear baby Knut (more...) has attracted visitors by the thousands since he went on show to the public in March. Bear-lovers from all around the world have made the pilgrimage to see the no-longer-quite-so-little furball who has set the cash desks ringing at the Berlin Zoo. On Thursday the furry little scamp welcomed his millionth visitor -- but the milestone could also mark the beginning of the end of Knut's fame.

The lucky millionth visitors were a couple from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Ilja and Vincent Arends. They are here in Berlin on vacation -- and of course no visit to Berlin is complete these days without a trip to Knut's enclosure.

"It's our first time in Berlin and to get such an honor and a stroke of luck!" Vincent enthused. As a prize the couple, who had bought their entrance tickets on the stroke of noon, got a gift basket from the zoo, containing a soft toy version of Knut and other goodies.

As usual, Knut appeared completely unfazed by all the attention. The bear, who now weighs 42 kilos, played and wrestled with his loyal carer Thomas Dörflein, who has raised the bear by hand since he was born in December.

The Arends were delighted to see the little bear romp around in his enclosure. "Look at how he nibbles on Thomas' finger," Ilja told her husband. "We are really pleased that we saw him live," commented Vincent.

However Knut's glory days may already be behind him, even though he just turned seven months Thursday. Dörflein said in an interview with the daily Der Tagesspiegel published Thursday that Knut's public appearances with his trainer would soon be brought to an end. He told the paper that his boss, zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, had told him that "it will be the end of the Knut show in a few weeks." Visitors to the zoo have enjoyed watching Thomas and Knut play together in two hour-long shows each day since March. Soon, Knut will be on display just like any other bear at the zoo.

Tabloid Bild speculated that the Knut show might be cancelled as early as next week. The newspaper reported Thursday that the security staff who are currently responsible for crowd control will no longer be present as of this Sunday. The barriers which have been used to contain onlookers are also being dismantled. There has been a growing consensus in the past few weeks that Knut is no longer as cute as he was when he was small.

However, Dörflein said that he would still be together with Knut behind the scenes for a while yet. "For me there won't be any separation just yet," he told Der Tagesspiegel.

He said that his relationship with his girlfriend has survived the intensive few months looking after Knut. "We have even moved in together now," he said. He described the interest from his many female fans as "unbelievable," admitting that his desk was covered with "love letters from around the world with songs and poems."

Dörflein expressed a certain nostalgia for Knut's infancy, saying he liked to watch the videos of when Knut was younger. "You forget so much," he said.


The process of weaning Knut off his human step-father and encouraging him to be more independent is going well, Dörflein said. However he said that if Knut were to go and live with a female bear of the same age in another zoo in the future, then he would not go to visit him. "If he smelt my scent, it would cause him suffering," he said. "I wouldn't do that to him, or to myself."

He said that he would not want to raise another bear for the moment. "At the moment I'm burned out," he confessed. "I would do it again if I got my own apartment in the zoo. But there'll never be anything like Knut again."

dgs/dpa

Why Everbody Loves Cute Knut the Polar Bear

He waddles into view with the nonchalance of a rock star -- a foot-high fur ball who just makes everyone want to swoon.

Knut the polar bear cub is the Berlin zoo's newest and greatest attraction, pulling in 15,000 adoring German fans every day.

Andreas Ochs, a veterinarian at the zoo, is happily aghast at the attention lavished on the little bear. When asked why the cub causes such a stir, he said, "You know, you cannot declare it totally. It's like a pop star."

But Knut has gone way beyond pop stardom, as what began as a national story has quickly become an international sensation.

Superstar snapper Annie Leibowitz crowned Knut herself when she photographed the pint-size wonder for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

After the photo shoot, Knut collapsed on the spot for a well-earned nap, and Liebowitz said, "Goodnight Knut. Thank you for today. You're a superstar."

But what could have caused such a global ruckus? After all a bear, is a bear, is a bear, isn't it?

We decided to find out.

We got in touch with a guru of celebrity handling, David Hahn, CEO of Celebagents in London. Asked if he could shed any light on the Knut phenomenon, he chuckled and said, "Because he was rejected by the mother, it's the same feeling as being the loser. And people will always go with the underdog."

Ah ha, so maybe that's it? You see, Knut has not had the easiest childhood. First off his mother, Tosca, a traumatized behemoth rescued from a life as a circus performer, rejected Knut and his twin brother at birth.

Knut's brother, robbed of his mother's warmth, tragically succumbed to the chilly Berlin winter. Zoo vets stepped in quickly to save Knut from the same fate, deciding to raise him themselves rather than let him perish. A traumatic start to be sure, but his trials didn't end there.

Many animal rights advocates believe that the zoo authorities should have let the cub die, as is common in the wild when a mother rejects her young, rather than raise the cub within the confines of a zoo.

--ABC News
28 Apr 07

Knut Celebrates Six Glorious Months

Knut turns half on June 5 after six glorious months for Berlin Zoo which has hand-reared the celebrity polar bear from a guinea pig-sized baby into a powerful 28-kilo fighter. He'll be spending the day munching fish and playfully biting his faithful keeper Thomas Dörflein. It's a friendship that can last six more months at most.

Knut turns six months on Tuesday, but Berlin Zoo isn't planning to mark the occasion with a gift-wrapped fish even though the celebrity polar bear cub has brought in hundreds of thousands of extra visitors this year.

"No presents," his keeper Thomas Dörflein told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "He gets so much to eat that he wouldn't even notice if he got anything special."

By the looks of him, Knut doesn't need extra rations. Under Dörflein's tireless round-the-clock care, Knut, rejected by his mother at birth, has ballooned to a chubby 28 kilos. That's three times heavier than when he stumbled into the global media limelight on March 23, the day of his first public appearance.

Tragically, his cuteness rating (more...) is declining steadily. The white ball of fur with innocent black button eyes that melted millions of hearts has turned into a shaggy yellow bruiser with a long snout. He's already got four of the 42 teeth that will one day turn him into one of the world's most fearsome land-based predators.

"One day he'll be big enough to kill a seal with a single swipe of his paw," said Raimund Opitz, announcing one of Knut's twice-daily appearances last week. Opitz said Knut was getting so big that the zoo will end the shows in two or three months and put him on constant display in his own enclosure.

Public interest in Knut remains strong but is gradually declining. He now gets 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a day, down from the tens of thousands who queued up to see him most days in March and April.

Days of friendship numbered

He won't be fully grown for another four years, when he will weigh half a ton or more, but zoo vet Andre Schüle estimates that Dörflein will only be able to play with him for another six months. He'll be a year old then and weigh between 60 to 80 kilos.

"Dörflein is an experienced keeper, he will realize when he's no longer needed," said Schüle. "At some point Knut will no longer want this close contact with a person. He's getting used to his role as a loner."

The keepers say the cub regards Dörflein as his mother and is unlikely to attack him, but admit they can't be sure.

Last week the two still appeared to be the best of friends. Knut followed Dörflein around the enclosure like a faithful pet dog, sucked the keeper's thumb, enjoyed being pulled around on a rug and swimming with him in the moat surrounding his enclosure.

"He's getting bigger and stronger and his playing is getting rougher, even though he doesn't mean any harm," said Schüle.

Dörflein winced with pain and shielded himself with his arms as Knut bit him playfully in the crotch and backside, and he has taken to covering his hands with his sleeves. His trousers are torn from countless sessions playing with the bear.

Asked if he was ever in pain, Dörflein said: "He's only playing. It feels like pin pricks. But it can really hurt when he gets angry."

Devoted care

Dörflein no longer has to spend his nights on a bed next to Knut's wooden cot because the cub is happy to sleep on his own now, said Schüle. For months, Dörflein gave Knut the attention of an adoring mother, bottle-feeding him porridge, patting his back to burp him and rubbing him in baby oil as a substitute for his mother's fatty saliva.

He pinned photos of Knut's parents, Tosca and Lars, on the inside of his cot, built him a hammock, risked the bear's wrath each day by shoving a thermometer up his bottom and patiently played football with him. Two weeks ago he taught him how to swim.

Despite this close attention, Schüle rejected an accusation from the director of Rotterdam's zoo (more...) that Knut was going to turn into a problem bear because he had too much contact with humans.

"We're not concerned about that at all. We had an experienced arctic photographer here who observed Knut and said he behaved just like polar bear cubs in the wild. Knut isn't going to be a problem," said Schüle.

The head of Rotterdam's Blijdorp zoo, where gorilla Bokito escaped last month and injured a visitor before wrecking a restaurant, said Berlin zoo had brought the ape up badly and said it had pampered Knut so much that he too would become a troublemaker.

Bokito, now 180 kilos, was hand-reared in Berlin Zoo and moved to Blijdorp two years ago. "Bokito's just like any other gorilla, he's just very agile and sporty. He's not a problem ape, he's just big," said Schüle.

Bokito crossed a 3.5-meter ditch and vaulted an electric fence in Blijdorp. He also briefly escaped from his cage while at Berlin zoo, sending visitors racing for the exits while he played with a bicycle.


By David Crossland