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A very, very terrible way to start the weekend. Our most beloved celebrity polar bear of all time, Knut the Polar Bear, has passed away in his Berlin Zoo habitat at the young bear age of 4. Knut was such a special little (~1000 lb.) guy. He was born into this world a reject, as his mother saw that world famous kissy snout and thought “Nah.” But the kind zookeepers didn’t give up, and Knut survived those rough infant days, eventually becoming what could be considered the most famous polar bear in the world. He was an international celebrity. A-list all the way. Then things got a little different. The media began reporting that all of the attention Knut was receiving had made the little guy insane. Photos surfaced of Knut covered in mud, looking like a little polar bear candidate on Hoarders. He turned 1 years old, celebrated his Bear Mitzvah,...

Knut and Friends is a German-made documentary (titled Knut und seine Freunde in its native language) that received it's big screen premiere in Berlin in March 2008. It tells the story of a polar bear that was raised from a cub at Berlin Zoo and went on to become one of the most famous zoo animals in the world. An English language version of the film was recently released in on DVD and Blu-ray in North America by Image Entertainment/E1. It is intimately touching and visually spectacular (particularly in HD) and makes for fine family entertainment.

Want to know more? Knut is a polar bear who was rejected by his mother shortly after his birth. She was a former circus bear who was being cared for at the Berlin Zoo. He was subsequently raised at the zoo by keeper Thomas Dörflein. Dörflein initially had to sleep in the same room as the vulnerable cub,...

Knut, the world’s most famous polar bear, turned two last Friday, but this year there was no celebration – and the animal-kingdom superstar might need to start looking for new digs. According to reports in the German press, Berlin’s zoo is looking to sell the famous bear to another facility, possibly in Sweden, in 2009. Now weighing in at almost 450 lbs., Knut is too big for his current enclosure, zoo officials say. And zookeeper Heiner Klös, recently told the German magazine Der Spiegel that Knut needs to be treated like the rest of his neighbors. “We have 14,000 animals here and...