Knut’s entire species needs our help

THREE weeks from now, a most unusual birthday will be celebrated in Berlin; Knut, the city’s polar bear cub, will be one year old.

Berliners have a soft spot for bears. The animals have been a symbol of their town since the 13th Century and the name Berlin derives from bär, German for bear. Fans will converge on Berlin Zoo for Knut’s big day, but the celebrations will not be confined to citizens; visitors are expected from far and wide. The birthday boy caught the public’s imagination on December 5 last, when the zoo announced the birth of two cubs, the first ones to be born there in 30 years. Their mother Tosca, a 20-year-old former circus performer from East Germany, proved to be a very bad mammy. As far as she was concerned, the new arrivals were a nuisance and she rejected them. Lars, the cubs’ 13-year-old daddy from Hellabrun Zoo in Munich, was no help either; polar bear fathers take no interest whatsoever in their offspring.

When one baby died, zoo staff intervened to save the second one. Christened Knut after King Canute, the Viking who ruled Britain in the 11th century, he was kept in an incubator for 44 days. Then, keeper Thomas Dörflein agreed to become his adoptive mother, sleeping beside the little bear each night and bottle-feeding him six times a day. Encouraged by Thomas, he learned to walk and swim.