All stories about "Knut"

Americans have long harbored an unhealthy fascination with Hollywood child stars. From Shirley Temple to Britney Spears, Corey Feldman to Macaulay Culkin, those that have skyrocketed to fame prior to hitting puberty have faced an uphill battle, often dabbling in drug abuse, overexposure, and the attempt to resurrect their careers via terrifying reality TV shows. But is that phenomenon now taking hold of an entirely different species?

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Back when Gridskipper first posted about the disarmingly cute polar bear cub named Knut having won the coveted cover of Vanity Fair (as well as our hearts), it became obvious that the once-orphaned cub, now child of the world, was destined for great things. And so it went. Knut is now the star of his own feature film, Knut und Seine Freunde (Knut and His Friends), which is currently out in 150 cinemas across Germany. The documentary, by Berlin filmmaker Michael Johnson, captures Knut in all his glory -- from young cub to enormous adult. The film also includes a handful of likewise cute and fluffy "friends" of Knut's -- two brown bears, Masha and Pasha, as well as the maternal Maidu and her two cubs, Lasse and Lin. Expect a whole lot of ooing-and-ahing -- this cuteness porn comes with a soundtrack and suspense-inducing cuts. [via]

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Prepare to just melt into pile of cuddle-squeezin's when you see this latest clip of Flocke -- that's the finally applied name for the Nuremberg Zoo polar bear cub rescued from its unstable mother Vera. As opposed to the previous video, this time Flocke sorta moves around and seems to sorta see things, like contemplating her own image in the mirror and meditating on the concept of self. In a macabre twist, Flocke will be moved into the pen formerly occupied by Vilma, the zoo's other polar bear which ate her own cubs. The infanticidal Vilma will be shipped off to "a zoo in the gritty port city of Rostock, on the Baltic Coast, where few tourists go." Pay attention, Knut. [via]

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German tabloid Bild suggests that the super-cute as-yet-unnamed polar bear cub at the Nuremberg Zoo would make "a perfect mate for Knut." You perverts -- that cub is barely four weeks old! Get your sick pedophilobeastial thrills somewhere else. Even Time magazine asks, what of the children? [AFP]

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What is with the bear overkill in Berlin? You run across some form of bear iconography on just about every block in Mitte, and the sheer number of them seems to suggest some deep and profound significance. But nobody actually knows for certain what elevated the bear to its lofty position here. Theories tout potential historic and phonetic explanations for the density of the city's bear symbols, which date back hundreds of years. (I actually sit in the Albrecht der Bär camp.) But before that, it was just a seal. Only in the past decade has the bear fascination begun to get a bit out of hand and become an emblem of the city's renaissance and a tool of marketers. The return of the brass bear to the Altes Stadthaus that symbolized the "reappropriation of the city's cultural heritage" only just took place at the turn of the last century. Now tourist shops are full of all things bear that visitors can cart home like battle regalia.

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Given the noble rot affecting lately uncute Knut the polar bear, is it time for Knut 2.0? The Nuremberg Zoo may go that route, having separated a weeks-old polar cub from its nervous mother, Vera, after another bear in the zoo, Vilma, apparently ate her own pair of cubs over the weekend. Yeeesh! "The zoo apparently became aware of a change when keepers stopped hearing the howls of the cubs over the weekend, but they believed that meant Vilma was taking care of her offspring well." Maybe, if you mean "taking care of" in the Pulp Fiction sense. [Deutsche Welle]

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"We don't want a Knut with a machine gun slung over his shoulder who shoots his keeper or the director," says Berlin Zoo director Bernhard Blaskiewitz, acknowledging interest in a Knut movie while denying reported offers of $5 million for the rights. [photo]

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Yesterday, thousands of people in cold-weather cities went for painful, annual Polar Bear swims in icy oceans, rivers, and lakes to celebrate the new year. One guy in Trail, British Columbia actually died during his swim, though most other participants just froze their nads off. At the Oregon Zoo, people took literal Polar Bear plunges in the polar bear tanks, and in Rome, dozens of dudes made swan dives in to the Tiber (here's the clip).

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In continuing with our ever-vigilant coverage of international animal cuteness we bring you this slideshow from the Sydney Zoo featuring shots of the zoo animals receiving their annual Christmas treats. Not only are these pictures incredibly precious, but this shot of a Kodiak bear gorging on a box of fruit pies has to be the most inspired solution for re-gifting fruitcake ever. [Reuters]

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Our coworkers are so clearly besotted with intimations of approaching freedom that they're now horning in our international animal photo coverage. Props, though, for this 50-year-old orangutan slumped face-down into his chunk of birthday cake at the Frankfurt Zoo. [Gawker]

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This is the international cuteness mega-celeb? Still the Berlin Zoo's star cash-cow, Knut the polar bear now weighs upwards of 240 pounds and tends to roll around in the filth (hence his less-than-snow-white coat). He "celebrated" his first birthday last week by watching zoo visitors eat cake, though Knut himself enjoyed some kind of special fish-lump for the occasion.

Polar bear celebrates 1st birthday [via]

[Photo: Getty]

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Well, not really knighted per se. He couldn't be bothered to wear a tie, but at least he combed his hair back. Zookeeper Thomas Dörflein, the man who reared international celebrity polar bear Knut from a cub, was awarded the "Medal of Merit" by the city of Berlin for services rendered. Despite the fact that the adolescent Knut could basically murder him at will now, Dörflein apparently still plays with the bear in the mornings before the zoo opens to spectators. Perhaps that shiny medal will one day appear in Knut's postprandial stool.

Arise, Sir Dörflein [Spiegel]

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So now that German polar bear Knut has aged out of cuteness enough to actually fake infirmity to get attention, the world cries out for a new baby animal to obsess over. Enter the as-yet unnamed giant panda cub born last month at the San Diego Zoo, identified yesterday as a girl-cub. Even a jaded, withered heart such as mine must grimly declare this creature irresistibly adorable. Check the zoo videos for more intolerable cuteness.

Giant panda cub born at San Diego Zoo is a girl [San Diego Union-Tribune]

[Photo: Reuters]

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Yesterday, the Budapest Zoo allowed the public its first live glimpse of the Persian leopard triplets born there in June. They do look super-cute in this photo, but bear in mind this was the only pic I could find where they didn't look extremely pissed off. (For instance.) Even with Berlin's polar bear Knut aging out of cubhood into a remorseless eating machine, it seems Bella, Bara, and Behar will need to sweeten up a bit to capture the international baby animal crown of preciousness.

Zoo shows Rare Persian leopard triplets [AP]

[Photo: Getty]

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Well, Knut's book is out in German. (An English version will be out in November.) The Berlin Zoo polar bear cub who's embarking on a strapping if potentially murderous adolescence seems ambivalent about the cover shot, which does capture his good side but features very little fresh meat. Perhaps he's annoyed by the several "unofficial" Knut bios rushed to print before he could step up and cash in. He's not going to like those disappointing royalty checks either.

Knut, der kleine Eisbärenjunge [Amazon.de]

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This AP photo pretty much says it all -- I mean, the man is about to get his head eaten. Knut, the super-cute polar bear cub at the Berlin Zoo, has gotten too large, feisty, and potentially murderous to continue his routine of appearing with his keepers. He'll still be on view, but solo. A sad day for mauling fans.

Knut getting too big for his daily duet [AP]

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Who's German, beloved by millions, appears only in white from head to toe and is difficult to get an audience with? If you guessed Pope Benedict XVI you'll be forgiven, but in Berlin that could only describe the cuter than cute polar bear cub Knut. His "victory against all odds" story (only surviving cub of two, rejected by mother, hand-raised by keeper to the consternation of cruel and heartless animal activists) has only added to his attraction, and the crowds have been rushing Zoo Berlin to get a look at him. This isn't as easy as it seems -- his small size, innumerable adoring fans, and busy schedule (photo shoots with Annie Leibowitz for Vanity Fair, discussions with his security team regarding recent death threats, and meetings with his agents over high-dollar licensing deals) leave Knut only available to fans for two hours per day, and the wait to see the lil' fella can take up the entire afternoon. Thankfully, there are numerous ways to spend the remains of the day in the surrounding neighborhood.

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Knut, we hardly knew ye. Not content to let the polar bear cub cute-fight the Chinese baby koala twins all by his incipiently juvenile self, German zookeepers have unleashed a startling new weapon in the international baby animal arms race. Witness yesterday's unveiling of a three-day old baby elephant, which promptly took a bath and gamboled around with his mom, all to the predictable delight of onlookers. The miniphant actually resides at the Tierpark zoo, which competes with Knut's home-turf Berlin Zoo. No name yet, which seems like a criminal oversight in branding strategy.

Baby elephant makes a splash in Berlin [AP]

-- Chris Mohney

[Photo: Getty]

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So Knut, Mr. Polar Bear Cub. We know you're all super-cute and famous, but lately we hear you're getting death threats and maybe even getting a little too old. Two words: baby koala. And let's just add a third word: baby koala twins. We're Michelle and Amanda. Don't ask, nobody even knows our genders yet. But we're seven months old and drawing in tens of thousands of visitors to our lil' Guangzhou wildlife park. And here you thought a baby lemur was your main competition. That's right. China's about to sweep the international cuteness arms race, along with everything else.

Survival chances improve for rare koala twins [Reuters]

-- Chris Mohney

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Unfortunately for his many fans, Knut, the Berlin Zoo's star polar bear cub, is beginning to transition from super-cute cuddle critter to ursine killing machine. He's getting a longer snout and fatter haunches, all marks of incipient adulthood, or at least adolescence. His keepers are treating him a bit more gingerly than before, as his cheerful nips and swipes can rend flesh with ease now. One imagines there will be pressure to keep the cute Knut money train rolling for as long as possible, despite the bear's natural inclination to savagery. So if keepers start turning up with unexplained gouges or missing limbs, that's just the price of show business.

Knut Steadily Getting Less Cute [Spiegel]

-- Chris Mohney

[Photo: Getty]

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Nooooo! Ahem, no. Knut, the polar bear cub at the Berlin Zoo, is fine and not dead. However, he did get an actual death threat, which was considered serious enough that one of his security guards hid behind a rock in his enclosure yesterday, scrutinizing the crowd for possible assassins. (Knut has 15 private security guards, by the way. Perspective, people.) "KNUT IS DEAD! THURSDAY NOON," read the death letter, apparently unfulfilled as of this writing. Neither Knut's rageaholic keeper nor Bilbo the Lemur have been ruled out as suspects.

Knut Receives Anonymous Death Threat [Spiegel]

-- Chris Mohney

[Photo: Getty]

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I could throw him against the wall when everything comes together and he's shat all over his cage at three o'clock in the morning.

Knut's Keeper Confesses [Spiegel]

-- Chris Mohney

[Photo: Getty]

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Knut, the polar bear cub who hit two Vanity Fair covers and drew mammoth Easter weekend crowds to his home at the Berlin Zoo, may have a new nemesis. Stockholm's Skansen zoo has a six-week-old bamboo lemur named Bilbo that seems likely survive a baby-animal-orphan backstory similar to Knut's. Can Bilbo command the same numbers, cutewise, as Knut? "It remains to be seen," says the oracular AFP. Given the photo above -- which seems to show a wizened hairy junkie mummy sucking on a syringe of smack -- I'm not seeing it at all, frankly.

Stockholm raises bamboo lemur in possible rival to cub Knut [AFP]

-- Chris Mohney

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Knut, the Berlin Zoo's photogenic polar bear cub, has scored an intercontinental double play. Not only is he on the cover of German Vanity Fair, but he's sharing the cover of American Vanity Fair with Leonardo di Caprio. The New York Post had the VF cover this morning; full image after the jump.

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German Vanity Fair, that is. The world's most famous living Deutschlander, Knut the polar bear cub, has drawn thousands of visitors to the Berlin zoo even as his image is mercilessly plundered for commercial gain. Spiegel notes how Knut's cuteness is being exploited by everyone from banks to Greenpeace to the German government to the United Nations to various plush-toy manufacturers. Best cash in early, as Knut's appeal will decline sharply when he hits adolescence and starts mauling baby seals.

Cashing in on Cute Knut [Spiegel]

-- Chris Mohney

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