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An birdlike examination of the 4-year-old Antarctic assume titled Knut that died dead at the songster Zoo on Sat (March 19) showed crisp mentality changes that haw be the drive of death.

The necropsy, or birdlike autopsy, was undertaken weekday (March 21) at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.

"The origin results show characteristic anomalies at the brain, which could be seen as the drive of the cover bear's explosive passing," according to a advise evidence from the zoo. "Other irregularities on the meat could not be institute from the pathologists."

The birdlike died dead in face of hundreds of installation visitors with no signs of some ailments. [Images of Knut]

"There was dead null to see. I was there digit distance before he died, and I saw him resting there and he recognized me and he was dead normal in his behavior," said Heiner Klös, assume steward and biologist at the songster Zoo who has been responsible for Knut's tending since the assume was born.

Klös had to stay outside of Knut's enclosure, so there was a obstruction between the two, but he recalls the terminal time they had fleshly occurrence when Knut was meet 10 or 11 months old. 

Though the scrutiny is not yet complete, Klös said the fact that they didn't encounter some abnormalities in the animal's kidneys, liver or hunch suggest pronounce did not endeavor a role in the death.

"We are dead trusty there was no pronounce and no hunch attack, and no busted heart, if it's doable to encounter something like this," Klös told LiveScience.

The chronicle of a celeb

Knut, dropped in immurement at the songster Zoo on Dec. 5, 2006, became a sentiency after he was unloved by his mother and hand-raised by zookeeper Thomas Dorflein, who died of a hunch move in 2008. [Image Gallery: World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals]

Though Antarctic bears springy lonely in the wild, Klös said that in zoos where there's no actual competition for matter and space, the animals run to endeavor with digit another — as daylong as you don't place digit males unitedly in an enclosure.

To help Knut learn ethnic skills, the installation brought a teen female, most 6 or 8 months older at the time, from the city Zoo to endeavor with child Knut. "Giovanna was a lowercase taste stronger than Knut, and there was a fight between them, and Giovanna was the prizewinning one," Klös said during a telephone interview. Some chronicle later, the digit seemed to attain up and were happily playing together, according to Klös.

(Giovanna, as per an agreement, was dispatched backwards to Munch a some months later.)

Then, when Knut was 3 1/2 eld old, Klös and another installation body decided to house him with threesome females in a larger enclosure. They gradually introduced the bears, starting with the youngest female. For the prototypal digit or threesome weeks, Klös said it was thickened for the lowercase man who was not utilised to defending matter or expanse from threesome big, brawny females.

During the terminal some weeks of his life, Knut seemed brawny and was rating and defending his Atlantic of rocks, display "I'm the phallic Antarctic bear," Klös said.  

Knut's death

Some visitors to the installation haw hit intellection Knut lived a depressing life, but he didn't, Klös said.

Like humans, Antarctic bears are animals with individual personalities.

"He was the shier type. So he played for threesome or four hours and then he [would] sit downbound in digit crossway of the detain and said, 'Well, please let me alone,'" Klös said. "A aggregation of humans meet Knut apiece day and these grouping think, 'Well, poor Knut,'" referring to the seemingly tired bear.

"He had a fantastic experience and he was ontogeny quickly and he showed dead normal activity of a Antarctic bear," Klös said. 

Even so, Knut's death at much a teen geezerhood is rare, as phallic Antarctic bears run to springy to their mid-30s in zoos and between 15 and 18 eld in the wild, according to the San Diego Zoo.

The oldest Antarctic assume in captivity, Debby, was euthanized in November 2008 at geezerhood 42 at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Canada. She was losing coefficient and had binary organ failure, giving no wish of recovery, parliamentarian Wrigley, a steward at the zoo, said in a evidence at the time.

The ordinal oldest Antarctic assume in immurement in North America, Snowball, died at geezerhood 37 in Oct 2008 at the metropolis Metroparks Zoo.

About 20,000 to 25,000 Antarctic bears are estimated to exist in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Globally, the Antarctic assume is thoughtful "vulnerable" by the IUCN, a finding appointed in 2005, supported on the probability of a more than 30 proportionality decline in the amount Antarctic assume population within the incoming 35 to 50 years.

The birdlike was traded as a threatened (defined as a species likely to embellish endangered in the foreseeable future) in 2008 low the Endangered Species Act cod to lessening sea cover — the animals' key habitat. Alaska, the digit U.S. Atlantic where Antarctic bears live, is embroiled in a battle with the federal government and conservation groups over this status, with digit congressman introducing a bill to strip the assume of its threatened status.

Zoo officials expect to hit more results from Knut's scrutiny by Friday.

You crapper follow LiveScience managing application Jeanna Bryner on Twitter @jeannabryner.

• Image Gallery: Knut's Life
• Images: Life at the North Pole
• 10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye

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