Leading article: Bear necessities

Not even bears benefit from the bear market, it seems. When Knut the polar bear cub celebrates his second birthday at Berlin Zoo on Friday, this could be almost the last time he meets his adoring public on what was taken for granted as his home territory. Not only does the growing animal need a larger enclosure than the zoo can provide – where did those millions of euros he brought in from extra visitor fees go? – but a contract is out on his future.

He was, it turns out, only on loan to Berlin because his parents' home zoo, near Hamburg, was full. Now, pretty much every zoo in Europe wants to offer him a new home – at a price – and Berlin, to put it bluntly, can't afford the star it nurtured. But surely the sympathy between Berliners and "their" bear should count for something. As the French from time to time designate a new face for their national symbol, Marianne, could not Berlin appoint a new bear for its crest? In these straitened times, Knut should earn his living.