Posted on 03/22/2011 12:21:44 PM PDT by Red Badger
Brain problems apparently caused the shockingly early death of Knut, Germany's four-year-old celebrity polar bear, the Berlin Zoo said Tuesday.
Initial findings from a necropsy performed Monday by an institute in the German capital showed "significant changes to the brain, which can be viewed as a reason for the polar bear's sudden death," the zoo said in a statement.
The zoo didn't elaborate on the changes to the animal's brain, and officials could not immediately be reached for further comment.
Pathologists found no changes to any other organs, the zoo said, adding that it will take several days to produce a final result. Further planned tests include bacteriological and histological, or tissue, examinations.
Knut died Saturday afternoon in front of visitors at the zoo, turning around several times and then falling into the water in his enclosure. Polar bears usually live 15 to 20 years in the wild and even longer in captivity.
Knut, who was born in December 2006 at the Berlin zoo, rose to celebrity status as an irresistibly cute, fluffy cub.
Knut was rejected by his mother at birth - along with his twin brother, who only survived a couple of days. He attracted attention when his main caregiver, Thomas Doerflein, camped out at the zoo to give the button-eyed cub his bottle every two hours.
The bear went on to appear on magazine covers, in a film and on mountains of merchandise.
Doerflein, the zookeeper who raised him, died in 2008 of a heart attack.
The zoo now wants to have Knut stuffed and put on display at Berlin's Museum of Natural History, the German news agency DAPD reported.
It quoted a zoo spokeswoman as saying that the decision was made because Knut was a much-loved animal and officials wanted to make him available to science.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Whaaaaaaat? Isn't this the same Knut from this article: Abandoned baby polar bear is 'better off dead' than raised in zoo
The Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but animal rights activists insisted he would be better off dead than raised by humans.So the animal rights nuts wanted him killed, but blame the zookeepers when he dies four years later."Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht told the mass-circulation Bild, which has featured regular full-color photo spreads tracking fuzzy Knut's frolicking. "The zoo must kill the bear."
“So the animal rights nuts wanted him killed, but blame the zookeepers when he dies four years later.”
Consistency of thought or action is not a hallmark of the left.
When I was a teen, I raised chickens for awhile with my brother. I had a great brooding hen and I always allowed her to hatch her own eggs. One day, she rejected an egg from her nest. I placed it back in the nest and she pushed it out again. This happened several times, so I took the egg, candled it, and determined it was viable. I then placed it the incubator.
The chick was born with only one leg. She knew.
***Knut died Saturday afternoon in front of visitors at the zoo, turning around several times and then falling into the water in his enclosure. ****
Drunk or heat stroke from glo-bull warming! I hear it takes a toll on polar bears!
Is it incredible that these brain=dead environmentalist talk about “species-appropriate, but a gross violation” of natural law?
Then they are pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, pro-islam—pro-anything unnatural to kill off the “horrible” destructive species of man whom they don’t think belongs on their mother earth.
I find no one more stupid than these nuts.
OK, I’ll bite. How could she have possibly known. Really honestly. Give me your best guess. What possible mechanism. Seriously.
If I knew, I’d tell you. I don’t.
Magic? Psychic?
Ok... you’re a sceptic. That’s fine.
More... zoo keepers reveal that Knut watched MSNBC every evening... developing...
I’m having trouble getting worked up over poor ole Knut’s death. But then I remember the Central Park Zoo polar bear who was left in his tiny outside yard in July, August and September, lying miserably on a couple of rocks. Finally, a drunk climbed over the fence, was killed by the poor old bear - which resulted in the old bear finally being put out of his misery.
Wow...sceptic = skeptic.
You said she knew, so I guessed you *knew* she knew, which would mean you had some idea. Of course I’m a skeptic. People are either skeptics or gullible. Surely you don’t just believe something because someone says it, with zero proof. I just want a little more information. I’m not a liberal, after all.
... and his trainer died suddenly in his 40’s a couple of years ago.
Skeptic or critic?
Look, it was simply an anecdotal story from a first-hand experience I had. I believe animals have instincts beyond our ability to comprehend. Most people would accept that premise. So please, strike “she knew” and replace it with “peculiar”.
MSNBC does cause brain damage. Poor Knut, perhaps one of those zookeepers had it in for him. It is also being used as an effective means of torture in some countries, more effective than waterboarding. Prisoners have been known to crack within hours of being fed a steady diet of Ed Shultz and Rachel Maddow.
Knut kaput :(
I agree it’s peculiar. I could agree that it could seem at times that a mother animal may choose not to take care of a baby that seems not to be thriving. However, to know that a baby chick inside of an egg is missing a leg, and to know that a missing leg will make the chick not be able to survive and to thus refuse to even hatch the egg appears to me to be beyond the capacity of a chicken’s ability to reason. So, I would want to understand a possible mechanism.
I’ve had litters of puppies, in which one puppy had a problem. In all cases, the dam has cared for even the sick puppy, and in fact has been quite upset when the puppy was removed. My impression (and this is not scientific, so you are free to not believe it, and I don’t blame you, it is my guess only) when mother animals appear to reject sick young it is often that the sick ones (especially in litters) simply cannot keep up with the rest. In something like puppies this can quickly be lethal as they rely on the rest of the litter to keep them warm as they do not regulate their own temperature, and a puppy who does not move around with the rest will quickly become chilled and weak and die. This can look very much like the mother has rejected and pushed the puppy away, when in reality the other puppies have simply moved away.
I cannot explain your experience with the egg. It’s interesting, but on the other hand, if the chick had been born with no problems you probably would not have recalled the story, and so maybe, from time to time, hens just reject eggs. I don’t know, my hens refused to lay eggs. They just ate.
Lots of animals. e.g. puppies and kittens, are rejected by their mothers. Lots of them go on to live long, healthy lives if given proper care by a mother substitute.
The article notes that Thomas Dörflein, the zookeeper who cared for Knut, died at age 44 of a heart attack.
Do you suppose "his mother knew," too?
I dont know. Is she still alive?.......
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