World Famous Polar Bear Knut Dead in Berlin at 4 Years Old

The bear who spawned the cute Knut polar bear craze is no more!

Did whacko environmentalists finally get their revenge?

Visitors watch polar bear cub Knut in the Berlin zoo, March 24, 2007. Knut, the polar bear who became a global celebrity as a cute cub, died in at the Berlin zoo March 19, 2011 at the age of four. Knut, the first polar bear born at the zoo for more than 30 years, was rejected by his mother and fed instead by his keeper Thomas Doerflein. Thousands of visitors came to watch keeper and cub playing together, and Knut's fame soon spread around the world. The cause of death was unknown and he will undergo an autopsy. (Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters) Share

More on the story from AP.

Here at Mike's America we had quite a fondness for Knut when this story first came out. Readers may recall that environmentalists wanted Knut killed because it was "unnatural" to raise a bear that would otherwise have died without his mother's support.

I did a whole series on Knut starting with:

They're Cute at This Age, showing the earliest photo of Knut.
Early photos of Knut outdoors and with toys.
A slightly older Knut playing with his handler and a blanket.
An Encore Presentation with Knut rolling around in the dirt and playing outside

Knut even lended a hand in one post poking fun at "Neville Nancy" Pelosi.
And one last post of Knut taking a sick day in April 2007.

Another German zoo tried to get into the act with their own cute polar bear cub named Wilbaer but he didn't catch on quite like Knut.

In captivity polar bears live twice as long as the 15 or so years wild bears live. So Knut's sudden death is quite a shock and we will look forward to the post mortem results.