In her article 'Polar Bear Knut and His Blog', Guro Flinterud observes that 'the polar bear has become intimately connected to the events of global warming, because this phenomenon directly and visibly affects its habitat. Thus Knut, as a polar bear, referred to two actual places - the zoo, where he was growing up, and the Arctic, where members of his species are in danger of extinction. The representation of Knut as a blogger online represents a third place. "The real polar bear" and the anthropomorphized, "blogging polar bear" were entangled, because they were both situated in the zoo, meaning that the peacefulness of the blog depended on the happiness of the real bear in the actual zoo. This unstable, fragile duality made the foundations of the blog fragile' (209)

Flinterud notes that 'Early in December 2006, at the Berlin Zoo... A retired circus bear, Tosca... gave birth to two cubs...

Of the two cubs, one died after only a few days, but the surviving cub would become the most famous polar bear in Germany, if not the whole world: Polar Bear Knut... Knut's level of fame was unanticipated even by the zoo management, and should be seen as the result of a set of fortunate coincidences.' (192)

'A major force behind Knut's initial fame was undoubtedly his cuteness... As a cub, Knut had a big head, fluffy white fur, large black eyes, and a flat, round face, appearing as a model for the term "neotony."' (202-203)

'Because of the increasing focus on conservation issues in zoos over the last decades, Knut as a polar bear was immediately interpreted in a larger context of global warming and species extinction specific to his time. Tet as an individual he was part of a long tradition of zoo celebrities and zoo pets that goes back to the emergence of the modern zoo in the nineteenth century. however, whereas the famous zoo animals of the nineteenth century were often species considered exotic because they had never been seen in Europe before, Knut represented a species that was constructed as special because of the danger that it would disappear.' (209)