Knut the Polar Bear: Travel Savvy Mom

Stalking a Celebrity

April 21st, 2009 | by Kayt Sukel 1 comment

Do you know Knut?

If you have lived in Germany, visited Germany or just watched International CNN since 2006, then you probably do. And, of course, you might have heard about that crazy woman who jumped into a zoo enclosure just to get near this infamous celebrity the other week.

But just in case you don’t know Knut, in a nutshell (I can’t bring myself to make the “in a knut-shell” pun – oh wait, I just did), Knut is a polar bear that was born at Zoo Berlin in 2006. He and his twin brother were rejected by their mother. Zoo staff rescued both cubs from the polar bear enclosure but only Knut survived. He has been raised by zookeepers ever since.

Why all the fuss? Well, Frank Albrecht, one of those animal activist types, decided to stand up and say that Knut should have been left to die. That it was cruel and unnatural for the cub to be raised by humans. Add to that the consequent screams of a few million horrified German school children and what was dubbed “Knut-mania” was born. Honestly, it was nearly impossible to go through 2007 without seeing Knut stuffed toys, “Knut Must Live” t-shirts or hearing Albrecht being compared to Adolf Hitler. Knut was at the top of my German news feed as often as Britney Spears’ head-shaving-meltdown-antics were at the top of the U.S. headlines. I’m so not kidding here. (I won’t go into the irony there).

So when Chet and I were in Berlin the other week, I knew that we must make our pilgrimage to see Knut. How could we not? We are not immune to the pull of such celebrity.

But the trick was finding the little bugger.

As we wandered Zoo Berlin in search of a now not-so-tiny polar bear cub, we managed to see a very annoyed lion spray a rather overenthusiastic guest, a monkey play with himself and every other polar bear but Knut. When we asked directions to Knut’s enclosure from the staff, they seemed slightly annoyed. I imagine we were not the first ones to make that inquiry that day.

But we just couldn’t seem to find Knut. We walked in circles, trying to find our little polar bear celebrity.

And when we finally came upon Knut almost accidentally? Alone in his very own enclosure? Well, I suppose it’s like seeing any celebrity close up – a bit of a let down. I liken it to the time I saw Billy Joel shopping at the Gap. He was shorter than I expected, a little nasal and he didn’t break into spontaneous song while checking out the stretch cotton T’s. Similarly, Knut didn’t really seem the type to spark an international controversy. Rather, he was just a bear that enjoyed a bit of a lie-down and a scratch.

Never once were we inspired to jump into his enclosure. Not even during feeding time.

So there you go. I have to say it was a little disappointing. But once we got our celebrity-stalking out of the way, we could relax and enjoy the zoo as it was meant to be enjoyed.

You know, after we got a few Knut-related souvenirs.