Cuteness alert! 4 month old polar bear

[DanielD]

Hello, this is Knut (if I guess right, it would probably pronounced like 'cnoot' in English).

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Knut was born last December in Berlin's Zoo, but unfortunately his Mother, a former circus bear was unable to care for him, so he had to be hand-feeded by a zoo keeper. So his "mom" is the guy with the blue shirt and that's why Knut is following him all the time as if he was his mom.
Knut is now four months old and very popuar, the demand to see him is so high that he is shown to the public now twice a day.
But the run is still enormous and it's a luck that Knut doesn't seem to be impressed at all that a few thousand people were watching him while he was playing with the keepers. Playing with the blanket was big fun for him.

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The full gallery is here, and the zoo page is here in case you want to see more of him.

Hope you enjoyed. :smile:

 

[dmwphoto]

Great set of images and touching narrative! Thanks!!

 

[TOLady]

Wonderful images, and thanks for sharing the story.

 

[james thiel]

Great images and lots of fun to see.

 

[Toby D]

I've heard of this little guy, the animal rights people wanted him to die because he can't be raised "naturally". The Berlin Zoo should be congratulated that a sense of humaneness overcame political correctness. Letting him live was said to be "abuse".

Thank you for sharing these, it makes him more real and appreciated for his beauty and intrinsic worth rather than his circumstances.

 

[alexf]

Wonderful set, even better the full one at your site. Thanks!

 

[DanielD]

Wanted im to DIE?
Toby you may guess that I'm biased, but this point would be true for most zoo animals, and maybe for "animal rights" people as well(!)...
While it is of course desirable to protect and conserve the natural environment of polar bears, this is just ridiculous.
I can't see any political correctness there, only :actions1:....

Ok, having written that I already feel a little bit better....

 

[DanielD]

Great set of images and touching narrative! Thanks!!

Wonderful images, and thanks for sharing the story.

Great images and lots of fun to see.

Wonderful set, even better the full one at your site. Thanks!

Thanks for your kind comments. It was a great pleasure to see him in person so I had to share these moments with you.

 

[Pa]

I heard about this bear cub on the (CBS?) news last week. Thanks for posting the pictures.

I wonder what will happen as the bear gets bigger. Will his "Mom" continue to wrestle with him? :biggrin:

 

[Gr8Tr1x]

As a member of the Colbert Nation, I say :

'Threatdown: Bears!'

 

[tojor]

Very cute series. It must have been very interesting to see him in person. We've heard about him in the news. Thanks for posting.

 

[misupix]

You did it Daniel, you're the one bringing Knut to the world!

I really like your pictures much better then the costly Jamba-mobile-phone-pics advertised on TV :Crunk:

 

[DanielD]

Thanks, I'm astonished how far the news about that bear cub has spread.
Thanks Michael, although it should be easy to beat Jamba quality wise it was quite difficult to take those pictures.

The queue at the entrance was rather long so that I came too late to get a good shooting position (read: I was standing in the middle of the crowd as could hardly see the enclosure). I was constantly peeking above and between people's heads before me - I nearly beat the lady before me with the fully extended 80-400 on hear head several times. :redface: I have a LOT of pictures with other people's heads and hands in the frame and am rather happy with the pictures I got in the end. :smile:

(It's a good feeling having a 400mm at hand in that situation :biggrin

off to bed...

 

[Toby D]

Wanted im to DIE?
Toby you may guess that I'm biased, but this point would be true for most zoo animals, and maybe for "animal rights" people as well(!)...
While it is of course desirable to protect and conserve the natural environment of polar bears, this is just ridiculous.
I can't see any political correctness there, only :actions1:....

Ok, having written that I already feel a little bit better....

My apologies, I projected American craziness on another's country. "Animal Rights" is a protected political theory here. I'm glad it hasn't spread as far as I had feared.

 

[Anthony747]

Cute!

 

[cajun angel]

Awwww, that's the little cutie they've been talking about on the news! I'm so glad the zoo stepped in and decided he was just too valuable to let die! I think he should be a symbol of just how caring people can be! Beautiful photos and wonderful documentation!

 

[Timeout]

Daniel, thanks so much for sharing Knut with us! All your shots, including all the ones in your gallery are fantastic and I appreciated the difficulty you must have had, trying to shoot within the framework of such a large crowd.

As to Knut, what an adorable little cutie-pie he is! :biggrin:

 

[Bohdan]

Definitely high on the cuteness scale. Thanks very much for posting.

 

[Hokum]

Very nice shots Daniel, it hard to choose one i like more than the others.

Not wanting to get political, but in responce to toby's post, i have serious issues with "animal rights" people... kill the bear as it would be raised by humans... well that to me makes it better adjusted to live in a zoo than a wild caught bear forced to live in a zoo... and my personal favourite, release american mink from fur farms in the uk so they can kill some of our native animals and make them close to extinction...

 

[Gale]

I am just totally in awe of this whole series.
Precious little guy:>)))
It is very good to save Polar Bears:>))
(won't get into some folks idiocy)

Thanks you very much for the story and images of Knut...(ibelieve pronounced noot here) :>)

I hope more Polar Bears are raised and saved. Global warming is making it rough on the Polar Bears in the wild to survive, along with many other animals and birds.