From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:

Thomas Doerflein, 44, renowned for
raising the Berlin Zoo polar bear Knut in
2006-2007 after the cub was abandoned by his
mother, was found dead in his apartment of a
heart attack on September 22, 2008. A 25-year
Berlin Zoo employee, “Doerflein with his burly
build and ponytail was a distinctive figure at
the side of the growing bear,” recalled
Associated Press writer Patrick McGroarty. “He
nursed young Knut in his arms behind closed doors
and wrestled with him after the bear grew old
enough to play. When Knut made his public debut
in March 2007, Doerflein was at his side. They
started a daily performance for the thousands of
visitors who flocked to see the bear at his
outdoor enclosure. But the ‘Knut show’ ended in
July of that year when the zoo’s director ruled
that the bear had grown too large for Doerflein
to frolic with in safety.” The “Cute Knut”
phenomenon reportedly boosted Berlin Zoo
attendance by 27% in 2007, and increased
revenues by $10 million.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:

Claudio, a three-month-old gorilla,
died on August 16, 2008 at the Munster Zoo in
Germany. “Münster zookeepers said Claudio’s
death was almost certainly the result of [his
mother] Gana neglecting and mistreating the
infant,” wrote Tony Patterson, Berlin
correspondent for The Independent. “Gana, 11,
last year gave birth to her first baby, a female
named Mary Zwo,” Patterson added. “Gana
rejected Mary Zwo for six weeks. Staff at the
zoo finally intervened and rescued the baby,”
who “has lived at a zoo in Stuttgart with four
other gorillas ever since.” Said Munster Zoo
director Jorg Adler, “There was no point in
intervening again. We cannot keep on taking away
children from a mother.”

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