For those of you who are not familiar with Knut the polar bear and his life story, he was born, one of twins in 2006 only for both of them to be abandoned by their mother at birth. Unfortunately his twin brother died only 4 days old leaving Knut to be brought up my his Keeper, Thomas Dorflein at Berlin Zoo.

I had the pleasure of watching him play and entertain the crowd one summer’s day in 2008 and he was adorable. Even though he had grown out of his “baby” fluffy and cute stage, he was clearly a cheeky and very active adolescent and a star in the making. Apparently his mother Tosca was a circus performer and I could see where he got those talents from as he played around with his sack of sand, throwing it in the air and catching it adeptly before wrapping it around his nose and head! He was a photographers dream that day and here are a few pictures that I took.

I understand that his continued survival and care was not a straight-forward matter and was often subject to heated debate amongst various animal welfare organisations and who knows whether mum knew that neither of her cubs were healthy enough to live a long and productive life and only abandoned them as a force of nature.

We will never know but I loved him.