First public glimpse of right to life polar bear cub (From Daily Echo)

First public glimpse of right to life polar bear cub

11:00am Friday 23rd March 2007 in

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THE baby bear at the centre of an international right to life row went on public show for the first time today.

Hampshire zoo experts had backed the moves to keep the baby polar bear at the centre of an dispute alive.

Marwell Zoo supported the decision to hand-rear four-month-old Knut, the bear cub rejected by his mother.

Animal-rights fanatics demanded that Knut should be put down rather than being bottle-fed by keepers at Berlin Zoo.

But Marwell's animal liaison officer Bill Hall has hit back, saying he would never allow that to happen here and that the zoo had even done a similar thing by hand raising its Siberian tiger cub Zambor.

Today much to the delight of a huge crowd who had gathered the 15-week-old cub made its first public appearance.

Sniffing and stumbling over the uneven, grassy ground, Knut delighted the crowds by clambering over a log and sniffing curiously at the legs of his handler, Thomas Doerflein.

The cub, born at the zoo on December 5, has already captured the hearts of Berliners through his own video podcast and TV series.

Poking his nose and then his paws into a stream, the cub appeared interested in exploring his new environment, but returned frequently to Doerflein, who has raised him by hand since his mother rejected him.