should Knut the polar bear cub have been let to starve?

Knut is a baby polar bear who was abandoned by his mother. now he is looked after a keeper at the Berlin zoo. the person cannot teach him any polar bear skills. so will Knut grow up to be a real polar bear? would it have been better to let him starve to death? Slow death from starvation is part of life in the wild, and many species are faced with exactly that right now. So is preserving species in zoos good enough?

Public Comments

  1. No. They will either: Keep him in captivity for the rest of his life. He could then be used to breed from, or used to highlight the 'plight' of wild polar bears, and thus help inrease wild numbers either way. Or, let him go, after raising him suitably to survive in the wild. They will not let him go if there is a significant chance of hi dying. Again, he would likely increase wild population numbers this way. So, of the 3 options, all will increase the population of polar bears. Starving him will kill off one polar bear, and reduce future numbers, and thus it stupid. Ashley
  2. Considering the fact that polar bear numbers are declining due to a variety of factors, no. Considering what a slow painful death starvation is; NO. Considering that a solitary cub cannot survive in the wild, NO Answer your question?
  3. I don't think so. Captive polar bears probably already have their instincts totally screwed up, and unless they're planning on releasing Knut back in the wild, what's the point. If you want to see a real polar bear, go to the Arctic, and you better act fast.
  4. No, Knut is educating people about his own kind.
  5. As someone who worked at an exotic animal rescue and raised tigers, lions, leopards, cougars etc... I can give you my educated opinion on hand rearing animals who are destined for a life in captivity. Hand rearing a baby exotic, like Knut, actually makes the animal better suited to and happier to be in captivity than letting its mother raise it. Animals that have to be in captivity are happier if they recognize humans as beings that will not harm them and provide them food and entertainment. While we were a rescue and didn't intentionally breed our cats, we had a lot of births from cats that were pregnant when rescued or that went into heat before the vet could fix them. We had a tiger birth at our rescue and made a bad decision by letting the mother and father raise the cubs. Even though the parents were somewhat friendly with us, the cubs were terrified of us and had to be moved into a seperate enclosure when we went in to clean or feed them. They were very stressed every time we had to get near them or their enclosure. After that experience, we would take cubs from their mothers at about two weeks of age and hand rear them. These cubs were much happier as adults and easier to work with. They were put in enclosures near their mother so as not to stress her out. They were still very very dangerous animals and not in any way tame, but they didn't get stressed by having humans go near them or spend a lot of time in or near their enclosures. It sounds cruel to remove them from their mothers but it made the cats much more happy and relaxed about spending their entire lives in captivity. Knut doesn't need to learn how to hunt and will be fine with the toys in his enclosure, time spent with his handlers and other life enrichment programs that the zoo will provide for him for the rest of his life.
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