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Subscribe to RSSAccording to Spiegel Online, Knut suddenly collapsed and died in the water area of the polar bear enclosure as 600-700 visitors to the zoo watched. Knut was hand-raised by zookeepers after his mother rejected him at birth, and the keeper pictured with him, Thomas Doerflein, passed away of a heart attack in 2008 at the age of 44. Read the full Spiegel story here, and read more about Doerflein here. See more images from Knut's life here.
Herbert Knosowski / AP file
Knut, the polar bear cub, has its first public appearance with his keeper Thomas Doerflein in the Berlin zoo on March 23, 2007. A Berlin zoo official says world-famous polar bear Knut has died. Bear keeper Heiner Kloes said that four-year-old Knut died Saturday, March 19, 2011 while alone in his compound. He says the cause is not yet clear.