We're trying to ween ourselves off cute-polar-bears-in-German-zoos stories but... they're just so damned cute. We get it that the Berlin Zoo's poor Knut now has a personality disorder but we just can't stop!
Flocke, which means snowflake, is the new Knut. She's the new star of the Nuremberg Zoo in southeastern Germany and like Knut, she's been hand-reared by zoo-keepers. (Apparently her mother tried to drop her down some stone stairs.)
Given that the Berlin Zoo admits to earning nearly $8 million from Knut last year, the Nuremberg Zoo will be looking for people like us to fork out for Flocke merchandise and extra zoo visits, too. Will we give in to temptation? We're hoping to stop at some gratuitously cute pictures.
It won't take you long to think of a few celebrities who've had trouble dealing with fame. Apparently, the same problems can occur in the world of polar bears. And that's why the biggest tourist magnet ever at the Berlin Zoo, abandoned polar bear Knut, might be taken out of the limelight soon.
Turns out that Knut has gotten so addicted to the adoration of the public that he can't survive without it. For example, the zoo closed for a day recently due to bad weather, and he howled and screamed the hours away until his fans returned. If there are no people near him, Knut becomes distressed and angry.
Some of the staff at the Berlin Zoo are considering sending Knut to a smaller animal park where he gets less attention, but presumably the attention would follow him. Unless he gets smuggled anonymously. If you find a cute (but slightly psycho) polar bear in your backyard soon, let us know.
If you're a cute, black-and-white animal living in Stuttgart's beautiful Wilhelma Zoo, you've been in the headlines recently. That's the conclusion we've drawn from the series of stories emerging from southern Germany, with the most disturbing news being the abduction of Babe.
Babe, in this case, was not a pig, but a penguin. Poor Babe was bird-napped from her enclosure in broad daylight last Tuesday and hasn't been seen since. As the police astutely pointed out, "There is no black market for penguins in Germany," so everyone's stumped by the penguin theft.
But the zoo is trying to turn its image positive again, finally announcing that a baby polar bear was born there in December. They kept it a secret--trying to avoid a repeat of the Knut drama in the Berlin Zoo--but have now announced that baby Wilbär is happy, healthy and hasn't been abandoned by his mother, although he'll be staying out of the public eye until April. By which time, we hope, poor Babe the penguin has also returned.
We recommend postponing trips to Stuttgart until all the black-and-white cuties are on show again.
Remember Knut, the adorable polar bear who captured our hearts as a cub and appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair with Leonardo DiCaprio before he got too big to be cute? Get ready for "Happy Knut", the movie! The creators of the live-action "Garfield" are pursuing the rights to Knut's story, with an eye towards having celebrity baby star Suri Cruise--spawn of TomKat--voice the cub Knut.
Suri has already visited Knut while Dad has been in Germany filming "Valkyrie," his WWII biopic about a Nazi renegade. Hey, we've seen "Happy Feet," and this sounds like a lot more fun (and adorable). If and when the film gets made, you can bet we'll have all the movie set travel details.
Knut the polar bear is a one-man show now: The Berlin Zoo which proudly displayed the orphaned polar bear cub who charmed the world (and made the cover of "Vanity Fair") has announced he will no longer be appearing with his keeper and surrogate father. Thomas Doerflein (that's him, above, back in April) told reporters, "Knut is still a child; he needs me," but the 110-pound bear, rejected by his mum at birth, is just too big for Dad. From now on, he'll only have his big red ball for company.
To see Knut's cousins in the wild, try the polar bear tours in Churchill, Canada, which drive right up to Manitoba-born mammals without fear. In graduating to adulthood, Knut leaves behind those adorable baby pandas as a memory of his cuter times.
As world famous German polar bear cub Knut inches towards adulthood and becomes drastically less cute, what may be a final surge in cross-promotional activities rages on. The latest entity to snag a piece of Knut madness is the Canadian Tourism Commission, which recently sent the little guy a special Canada-branded ball to play with.
As the Brand Canada Blog points out, it's a small hint that Canada (and not Germany--who knew?) is a natural home of polar bears. You can even swim with them at the Polar Bear Habitat in Cochrane, Ontario, a good 450 miles north of Toronto.
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by amandak
