Berlin Zoo Knut

Yassa said:
Yep that`s correct, I believe he has some contact with an ancient old moon bear in his very first months, but since that, he`s all on his own in the former spectacled bear enclosure.
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In the wild, cubs stay with their mother for much longer than the period Knut was handraised for. Its unsurprising that when seperated from his carers- because he was already growing big and dangerous- he gave continual 'lost' distress vocalisations, as in the wild he'd still be with his mother/sibling at that stage, or if separated trying to find them again..

However I don't see why Knut can't be integrated with other Polar Bears successfully in the future.

Its interesting how the massive interest level surrounding this cub was similar to the hysteria produced by London's cub 'Brumas' in the early 1950's. Interest levels in her also diminished rapidly as she grew out of her 'cute' baby stage and after a year or so only the name 'Brumas' remained famous. As an adult bear she had no special appeal or interest for visitors at all.
 
Thanks everbody for answering my question about Knut. The observation of Pertinax is touching and troublesome:

"In the wild, cubs stay with their mother for much longer than the period Knut was handraised for. Its unsurprising that when seperated from his carers- because he was already growing big and dangerous- he gave continual 'lost' distress vocalisations, as in the wild he'd still be with his mother/sibling at that stage, or if separated trying to find them again.."

This would of course be an argument against the handraising of polar bear cubs. I am not at all sure, but maybe the animal rights activists were right on this one?
 
Dan said:
This would of course be an argument against the handraising of polar bear cubs. I am not at all sure, but maybe the animal rights activists were right on this one?
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True...but if you didn't hand-raise them, the activists would be on you in a second calling you "cruel" and "inhumane" for letting nature take it course :) It's a double edged sword really...

Knut seems to stand out having negative side effects of being hand-reared. Toronto Zoo had an orphaned male polar bear Inukshuk who was also hand-raised, but I haven't heard of any abnormal behavior from him (then again, I haven't been able to find out any information on where he's gone to either). Nikita and Aurora were also hand-raised, but the prescence of each other probably helped to remind them of who they were. Would polar bear fosters ever work in this situation? It's worked with other mammals before...
 
ashley-h said:
Ah I'd seen a video of him running past a Sloth bear, wondered why it was there. Do they no longer live together?
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There are moats between the enclosures. From the right it's: Knut, Slothbears, Moonbears, Sunbears

Pics from Sunday:

Knuts enclosure:



Knut in the Moat:



Knut having sex with a pillow:

 
Yesterday a 37 year old man jumped into the water moat of Knuts Exhibit, because he was the opinion, **** is lonely and alone...The Keepers couldn't move the man to leave the exhibit, they fed Knut with a cattle leg, so he wasn't interested in the man. He could be saved by the Police and was not hurt.

A few years ago, another crazy man jumped into the exhibit with the entire group of polar bears....A female played a while with him, until he could be saved, injured, but alive, by the keepers.
 
Its not look its a good exbith. I hope he come to Orsa Bear Park in North Sweden. Here , its cold, and like Dan and Swedish Zoo Fan say , its the biggest polar exbith in the world , when it opend in may 2008.


I really wont Knut move too Sweden.
 
Zebraduiker said:
Yesterday a 37 year old man jumped into the water moat of Knuts Exhibit, because he was the opinion, **** is lonely and alone...The Keepers couldn't move the man to leave the exhibit, they fed Knut with a cattle leg, so he wasn't interested in the man. He could be saved by the Police and was not hurt.
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Idiot! And if he'd got mauled, it would have been Knut's fault and he would have been put down. Very sad and stuid :mad:
 
First the idiot @ San Fransisco with the rhino and now this! Why do people get "dumber" when they go to zoos? Also, I would love to have Knut come to the US - revitalize our polar bear genes (Even though this probably won't happen!)
 
ashley-h said:
Idiot! And if he'd got mauled, it would have been Knut's fault and he would have been put down. Very sad and stuid :mad:
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Surely if this idiot is that stupid to jump into a polar bear enclosure, its the idiot who should be put down ;) (Wont be a great loss to the gene pool :p)
 
taun said:
Surely if this idiot is that stupid to jump into a polar bear enclosure, its the idiot who should be put down ;) (Wont be a great loss to the gene pool :p)
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I agree with you it would be no loss to the human gene pool if he had been killed so very nearly a candidate for the next Darwin Awards!!!
 
About 20 years ago, in the lion exbith in the safaripark in Kolmarden, the dad in the family , a German man , go out and playing with the lion cubs. Quickly , the adult lions come and killed him. Idiot! The kids was in the car and watches evrything. :mad:
 
rillekolmard said:
About 20 years ago, in the lion exbith in the safaripark in Kolmarden, the dad in the family , a German man , go out and playing with the lion cubs. Quickly , the adult lions come and killed him. Idiot! The kids was in the car and watches evrything. :mad:
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Perfect example of somebody that should have won a Darwin Award.
 
Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere but I heard this morning from an unreliable source that Knut is getting a mate from an Italian Zoo in the near future. Can someone please confirm this? :confused:
 
The female is called gianna and lived for some time at munich. Now munich rebuild their enclosure, so she moved to berlin. She has her quarters next to knut and they'll be together soon.
 
And both don't really like each other. When they saw eachother few times (through iron bars) Knut reacted all the time very agrassiv against Gianna (fullname: Giovanna).
By the reason of Knut's behavior Gianna reacts aggrassiv by herself and I think Knut wouldn't be healthy after an attack of her. She knows that she is an polar bear.
I don't think that they will meet with in next weeks. Knut doesn't know how to behave like a polar bear.

When he saw his father or his father saw him, his father saw an intruder in Knut and wanted to banish him violently. Knut was lucky that there were iron bars between him and his father otherwise he wouldn't be alive.

The zoo would to co-house Knut and Gianna on the first anniversary (22th September) of the death of Mr Dörflein, Knut's zookeeper and "stepfather". But that dream is bursted like an air bubble.
 
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Otorongo said:
When he saw his father or his father saw him, his father saw an intruder in Knut and wanted to banish him violently. Knut was lucky that there were iron bars between him and his father otherwise he wouldn't be alive.
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As all male polarbears would do, if they see each other.

So far, knut is interested in gianna, but (as always when new bears meet each other) they are sceptic and so a bit agressive.
 
Knut and Gianna are together now. He is still a bit afraid, but it works out fine :)
 
interesting.... the second date (yesterday) was only 30 seconds long because Knut was afraid and run away from Gianna into his barn.
She knows what she want :D and she wanna have a man and not a dirty kid. ;)
 
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