Remember the cuddly and lovable polar bear, Knut, who was almost euthanized because his mother rejected him? Well reject no more, Knut has grown into a publicity fixture right up there with Paris‘ pooch, Tinkerbell.

One of his keepers, Markus Roebke said Berlin Zoo’s celebrity animal was obsessed with the limelight and howled with rage when denied an audience.

“Knut must go and the sooner the better,” he said, insisting that the bear should be sent to an animal park where he received less attention.

He is addicted to the whole show, the human adulation. It is not healthy. He actually cries out or whimpers if he sees that there is not a spectator outside his enclosure ready to ooh and aah at him. When the zoo had to shut because of black ice everywhere he howled until staff members stood before him and calmed him down. The trouble is that he identifies himself as a human and not as a polar bear.”

Some animal activists at the time he was rejected said it would be better for him to die than to be weaned by man. The zoo let him live however and he has become a major attraction, pulling in £6million in revenue so far.

[Source]