Animal Activists Wanted Him Dead...

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

... and now he's one of the greatest stars of Germany. His mother rejected him 15 weeks ago, together with his brother (who died shortly afterwards), but he managed to survive, thanks to his handler, Thomas Doerflein, who raised him by hand since the rejection. His name is Knut and he's an irresistibly cute polar bear from the Berlin's zoo, who made his public debut on Friday (not counting photos that have appeared earlier, his own TV show and video podcast):



Now what strikes me as odd is, when animal activists insist that this cute little cub would be better off dead than raised by humans. Why should be an animal put down due to its captivity? Apparently it is against animal rights to feed an endangered species with the help of a bottle. The exact words the animal activist (his name is Frank Albrecht were:

"The zoo must kill the bear"
and
"Hand-rearing a polar bear is not appropriate and is a serious violation of animal rights"

Apparently the reason for this is that the bear won't be ever able to survive in the wild because of being handled by a human. The death of that polar bear would be according to nature's wishes.

Now can you imagine killing something cute like that? Especially when the species is endangered. I can't...


(for more info and a nice video looky here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/23/polar.bear.ap/index.html)

plus here are a few links:
Wiki article
Fox News article
Knut Media Center
Stephen Colbert commentary on animal activist's threats
MSNBC article

[Sibling Chatty]

PETA-type freaks that can't understand that DAMN FEW polar bears are ever re-released to the wild need a swift lesson in life, death and morality.

I suggest taking them and dropping THEM in the wild and seeing how well they do.

He's a cutie. Yes, he'll be attached to humans, no, that's not normal for a bear. Neither is the damn zoo.

And he'll grow up to be a BIG bear. Better than not growing up at all.

[Swatopluk]

The claim that activists demanded the death of the bear is actually a (deliberate?) distortion by the BILD newspaper [barf, puke, vomit] that was then taken up by other media (including Der Spiegel).
The actual statement by the (wrongly) quoted activist was that it maybe would have been better to kill it immediately after birth when the mother didn't accept it. At any later time it would be murder and therefore not acceptable. This is of course still a debatable position but far less outrageous.
Btw, in today's newspaper I read that polar bears bred/rised in captivity alone (i.e. with no bear companions) have massive problems later with socialising. To get them breeding themselves seems to be almost impossible.

[Sibling Chatty]

Do they have enough Polars to allow him to acclimate to their company safely?

[Swatopluk]

No youngsters, that's the problem. Old males would probably consider him as fresh food.

[Sibling Chatty]

Then they need to find a zoo with the appropriate age cohort for him.

Zoos, unfortunately, can be very greedy about their animals, even if it means doing less that the best available for them. Greedy people make me extremely annoyed...

It's not about the zoo, it's about the baby. HE comes first. There's bound to be a place with other new cubs that could eventually integrate him into a group.

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

Well there's also the problem that the cubs are dependent of their mother till around the age of two... (I think)

And if I'm not wrong, it's not every day that polar bears are born in captivity (it took 30 years till one was born in Berlin)

[Sibling Chatty]

There is a world-wide database of zoo animals, and there is a solution somewhere that won't hurt the bear OR damage his essential "bearness". Somebody's just got to figure it out.

Hes so cute...but in a few years, he'll be too much for human companionship.

The Houston zoo had a similar problem with baby giraffes a number of years back. They ended up paying a fortune for a barren female from elsewhere that accepted the babies as her own. There's a solution of some sort. People have to quit worrying about what is best for the people and start worrying about what's important for the baby bear.

[Swatopluk]

That's the step that is planned here (from the start). Forgotten the details but I think he will be paired with other (though not polar) bear cubs somewhere else.
Not a very popular measure around here*, that's for sure but you are completely right that this is about the bear not our ego.

*Zoo visits went up 80%.

[Libralabrat]

I wonder where the outcry is for ugly endangered species...but I digress.

There was a push for a while to create a genetic clone of the Tasmanian Tiger...but many claimed that since carnivores learn hunting behaviors from their parents, they would not essentially be true Tasmanian tigers, ect.

I am all for saving endangered species and attempting to resurrect lost species...But that is mainly because I have always wondered what it would be like to hunt a mammoth with spears, or quagga, or see an aurochs up close....

[Swatopluk]

Welcome Ratty. Haven't seen you for some time!

[anthrobabe]

I just visited the Zoo Berlin web page- not too much updated info on Knut- but some nice photos of the now big boy!

I would love to have any photos of the primates at Zoo Berlin that anyone should happen to have.

[Swatopluk]

Although I walk past the Zoo on a regular base (the university is about 5 minutes walk from it), I have not been in it for years. 
I should blame the BBC/David Attenborough for it . The DVDs are at about the (sensed) price of a 1-day admission to the Zoo or the Aquarium*.
And now is simply the wrong time of the year.

*1 complete day is the minimum for either, I'd say the Zoo demands 2 for a thorough "inspection".

[Sibling Chatty]

Yesterday was his birthday...and we missed it!



http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0443036020071204

[Swatopluk]

Some female* polar bears around here are also pregnant at the moment.

*admittedly less spectacular than a male pregnancy