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Grown Knut 'cries out'

When Knut was nuzzling his handler, Thomas Doerflein, to the delight of an adoring public, the objections of outside experts were brushed aside. Knut, raised by zookeepers after his mother rejected him after birth, brought in an estimated $8 million in extra revenues for the Berlin Zoo last year.

But times change, cubs grow up and those experts may have been on to something after all. "With Knut, it's clear that he has imprinted on humans, and when neither his keeper nor visitors are there he cries out."

[...]

On a recent afternoon, spectators fluctuated between a dozen and just a
pair. The fading star lay with his head on his paws, his fur stained a
yellowish brown from rolling around in sand and dirt.

"Is that Knut?" a group of teenagers asked. Told that it was, they
looked disappointed, one said, "Oh," and barely a minute later, they
had gone.

On the comment section:

"He is a psychopath relative to his relationship and need for human interaction and attention COMPARED TO NORMAL POLAR BEARS and other animals in captivity.

An adolescent male Polar Bear (and most other non human mammals) should be exhibiting typical behavior patterns of aggressiveness, wanting a mate, etc... not just rolling around in dirt crying for people to dote over him.

The animal probably had mental issues at birth that was known to the mother, which could be a good reason he was rejected. Mothers don't reject cubs out of spite or meanness, it is natures way of culling animals who are not fit to care for themselves as all will have to eventually.

The real disappointment is not that Knut has lost his cuteness, but, that his fate was interfered with in the first place by humans for their own financial gain and entertainment."