CULTURE: Germans Fear Lady Bears Are Bullying Knut

When zookeepers moved Knut—the bizarrely famous Berlin Zoo polar bear—into an enclosure with his mom and two other female bears, they were hoping he might strike up some kind of romance. Instead, Germans now fear the girls are “bullying” their famous cellmate. One video recently posted online showed one of them lunge to bite Knut’s throat.

“Knut, the public’s favorite, has become a heap of misery,” read a recent German newspaper article, claiming the video is “pulling the heartstrings of people around the world.” But zookeepers say it’s much ado about nothing. It’s “only two minutes in the life of a bear,” one told the AFP. “Knut is not yet an adult male and doesn’t yet know how to get respect like his father did. … This type of problem will go away.”