A matter of life and death for Knut the cute

It's a cuddly animal story at the moment - but in the years to come it may be a question of life and death for a whole species.

When Knut, a polar bear cub born at Berlin Zoo was abandoned by his mother, his picture was shown in newspapers and on televison around the world. Now a German animal rights activist has suggested it would be better for him to be put down rather than brought up artificially by humans. That provoked an outrage. A throng of voices have leapt to Knut's defence - not least because he is teddy-bear-like, cute, fluffy and adorable.

But the difficulties of raising polar cubs in captivity may become much more pressing as the century progresses and the species' natural habitat, the Arctic ice, disappears because of global warming. Experts are agreed polar bears will be threatened with extinction in the wild as the ice melts; captive breeding may then be the only viable strategy to prevent complete extinction.

When Knut, who has just been had his picture taken by the celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz for an environmental campaign, was born last December, his mother ignored him and Berlin Zoo staff decided to raise him themselves, feeding him with a bottle.

According to the German animal rights campaigner Frank Albrecht, that is quite wrong. "Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," Mr Albrecht told the newspaper Bild. "The zoo must kill the bear." He cited a similar case of a baby sloth bear that was abandoned by its mother last December in the Leipzig city zoo and killed by lethal injection, rather than being kept alive by humans.

But his suggestion has caused anger in Germany, prompting condemnation from the zoo, politicians and animal protection groups. "The killing of an animal has nothing to do with animal protection," said Wolfgang Apel, head of the German Federation for the Protection of Animals. The Green Party politician Undine Kurth called the suggestion "completely unacceptable."

Berlin Zoo's chief vet, Andre Schuele, charged with caring for Knut, said the suggestion made him angry. "Polar bears live alone in the wild; I see no logical reason why this bear should be killed," he said, arguing that given the increased rarity of polar bears in the wild, it made sense to keep them alive in captivity so that they could be bred.

"Polar bears are under threat of extinction, and if we feed the bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos." Mr Albrecht backtracked on his position in later interviews, explaining that although he thought it was wrong of the zoo to have saved the cub's life, now the bear can live on his own, it would be equally wrong to kill him. "If a polar bear mother rejected the baby, then I believe the zoo must follow the instincts of nature," he said. "In the wild, it would have been left to die."

Several experts supported him. "I don't consider it appropriate for the species that the little polar bear is being raised on a bottle," said Wolfram Graf-Rudolf, director of Aachen Zoo. "The animal will be fixated on his keeper and not be a "real" polar bear. However, he feels it is now too late to put Knut out of his supposed misery. "The mistake has been made. One should have had the courage to put him to sleep much earlier."

"You can't domesticate a wild animal," said Rüdiger Schmiedel, director of the German Bear Foundation. "When Knut reaches puberty, his keeper is going to get a whack on the head."

Switch your Gas & Electricity and save up to £380 with Independent Compare