Tuesday, May 19, 2009

In Today's Polar Bear News...

Always remembering that our blog descriptor is "Money Matters" we have this, from Earth Times:

Berlin - Berlin's famous zoo resident, Knut the polar bear, was the subject of financial wranglings Tuesday, as zoo chiefs tried to agree on the sale of the bear from Neumuenster Zoo to Berlin Zoo, where he was born and gained worldwide fame. Peter D...

Courtroom wranglings over price of famous Berlin polar bear Knut
Berlin's famous zoo resident, Knut the polar bear, was the subject of financial wranglings Tuesday, as zoo chiefs tried to agree on the sale of the bear from Neumuenster Zoo to Berlin Zoo, where he was born and gained worldwide fame.

Peter Druewa, the chief executive of Neumuenster Zoo which owns Knut, said he was not prepared to sell the bear for less than 700,000 euros (944,000 dollars), while Berlin Zoo refused to pay "a cent more" than 350,000 euros.

Knut won global fame after he was rejected by his mother at birth and hand-reared by his keeper for 108 days, before becoming too big and dangerous to play with humans. His keeper Thomas Doerflein died of a heart attack last October, aged 44. "If Berlin has such a famous bear, surely it can let it cost something to secure the bear for Berlin," Judge Philip Hegerman appealed. But lawyer Joachim Gabler said, as the recipient of public funds, Berlin Zoo carried a responsibility to spend wisely. Knut's fame is estimated to have brought in revenues of roughly six million euros through merchandising and even as a star of the silver screen....MORE
That is a photograph of an older but relatively "Cute Knut".
Personally I think this is a more honest photo of Knut, capturing the essence of Der Eisbär:

Still Think I'm Cute?

Fangs for the memories: Knut is separated from this little boy by six inches of glass
One year on, cuddly Knut has turned into a 22st killing machine

From the Daily Mail

I'm not much into anthropomorphizing critters.