Scientists have found out what actually caused the death of the whip bear cub. A bronze monument to Germany's most famous polar bear erected in Berlin

On March 19, the famous polar bear Knut died at the Berlin Zoo. The bear died suddenly, in front of zoo visitors. The autopsy was carried out by the Leibniz Institute of Zoology and Wild Animal Research and the final results are still unknown, but according to preliminary data, the favorite of the public, Knut, drowned. The death of Knut shocked not only animal lovers and advocates, but the entire Berlin public - a four-year-old bear fed and raised by people was the main attraction of the city zoo. One of the visitors accidentally filmed the last minutes of the bear's life on a video camera - in front of dozens of people, he began to spin in place and fell into the water in his own enclosure. In the first seconds, people did not understand what had happened, and then they began to call for help. The veterinarians could no longer help Knut. It is not yet clear why the bear lost his balance and fell into the water. There are many hypotheses as to why Knut could have died. It is also possible that he was poisoned. It is also noted that the animal could drown by falling into the water in an epileptic fit. Six months ago, such attacks were noted in his father, the bear Lars. Knut was born on December 5, 2006 at the Berlin Zoo to the polar bear Tosca. The cub immediately gained public attention as it was the first bear to be born at the zoo in 33 years. In addition, the baby's mother refused to feed him, and the zoo staff took care of the newborn. The bear cub has become a global celebrity, a symbol of the fight against global warming and the movement for the survival of polar bears. In recent months, Knut lived in the same enclosure with two bears - Nancy and Katyusha, with whom he could not make friends. According to visitors to the zoo, recently he looked more and more sad and apathetic. Educator Thomas Derflein, who rescued Knut from his own mother and bottle-fed him himself, died in September 2008 of a heart attack. Visitors to the zoo noted that since then the bear has become more and more withdrawn into itself. Berliners brought flowers, postcards and toys to Knut's enclosure. The management of the zoo decided to put up a memory book at the main entrance - the famous Chinese-style gate. See the farewell photo of the Knut bear in the new photo gallery on Korrespondent.net.

In the Berlin Zoo, its most famous inhabitant, died of unknown causes. According to journalists, Knut died alone in his enclosure at the age of four. According to the caretaker, the bear took a walk around the enclosure, went into the water and suddenly died. On Monday, an autopsy will be performed, which will be designed to establish the true causes of death of the star beast. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit called the news of Knut's death "terrible". Note that the polar bear became a worldwide celebrity after he was rejected by his mother after his birth in December 2006. After the fluffy cub made its first public appearance, the zoo's attendance doubled.

(Total 14 photos + 1 video)

1. Numerous visitors to the Berlin Zoo watch a bear cub on March 24, 2007. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

2. Knut is seen in front of the public for the first time with his caretaker Thomas Dörflein at the Berlin Zoo on March 23, 2007. (Herbert Knosowski / AP)

Knut plays with a blanket in his enclosure on March 28, 2007. (Marcus Brandt / AFP/Getty Images)

4. Knut plays with the foot of his caretaker Thomas Dörflein on June 11, 2007. (Marcus Brandt / AFP/Getty Images)

5. Knut eats a birthday "cake" on his first birthday at the Berlin Zoo on December 5, 2007. Zoo officials celebrated 1-year-old Knut's birthday by inviting the public and members of the media to watch the bear enjoy a festive "cake" of rice, potatoes, carrots and fish. (Anita Bugge / WireImage)

6. The whip is reflected in the glass while swimming in his enclosure on January 11. (Axel Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

8. A whip in a pond overgrown with duckweed at the Berlin Zoo on September 14, 2009. (Rainer Jensen/EPA)

Knut (right) and Giovanna, a polar bear at the Munich Zoo, play tug-of-war in their enclosure's pond at the Berlin Zoo on March 8. (John Macdougall / AFP - Getty Images)

10. Polar bears Knut (left) and Giovanna play in the enclosure of the Berlin Zoo on March 4, 2010. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

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M. the largest species of fish goby, Chernomorsk. Gobius batrachocephalus. Twisted from hemp or straps and tied to a whip, a short and thin rope at the end, for quilting, whipping. A coachman's whip, belted, on a long whip, with a nap, for putting on a hand. The whip of the executioner, amenated with a cat, with a three-tailed whip, also canceled, was with a rawhide, a variable end. Scourge, long whip, for the German harness: the coachman rules the quadruple with the removal; shepherd's scourge, cracker, viten. Hunting whip, for squealing, arapnik. Povolochnaya, a whip when plowing, which is dragged behind a plow. Pogonyalka, simple, peasant knutishka; puga, batog, for goading oxen; whip, kamcha, kanchuk, short, thick and even Cossack whip, sometimes with a slap, a blade. Wolfboy, a thick whip, sometimes with a bullet woven into the tip. Wind the whip, attach a new tip. Knutyaga m. knutischa. Penz whip. whip cf. tamb. whip m. whip handle. Knutoboy, shoulder master, kat, executioner; an abusive nickname for the one who sings on the whip, the horse beats a lot. The whip is not God, but finds the truth, from torture. The only thing is that a whip and a collar. You won't get far on the whip. You can't harness a whip to a shaft. It is good to ride, who has his own whip on other people's horses. At least harness the whip, just to get there. It’s not a cart, if you don’t earn a whip in Putin. Whip for fools. If you didn't obey your father, you will obey the whip. Torment for sins, whip for theft. Waiting for trouble is hard (or harder) than a whip. A whip and a cannon (with a salute) love the odd. Whips whips, but dogs beats, idles. a healthy whip and a whip in moderation. Whiplashes have nowhere to cut, treelessness. Neither from the whip of the ax handle, nor from the flea of the shaft. Kubar whip

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Bear cub Knut was born on December 5, 2006 at the Berlin Zoo. He immediately attracted public attention, because his mother abandoned him at birth and the bear cub was raised by the zoo staff. Furthermore,

his birth was a significant event for the zoo itself: for the first time in 30 years, a polar bear cub was born there.

Knut very quickly became a world celebrity: 2007 (in March, the teddy bear was shown to the public) became the most profitable year in the history of the Berlin Zoo (Knut brought more than 5 million euros to his “home”). Toys, souvenirs, books, discs with the image of a small polar bear were released. Moreover, not only children, but also adults admired Knut: 541 out of almost a thousand boys born in March 2007 in Berlin were named after him. It is obvious that the reason for this was the excitement around the bear cub: the name Knut is quite old and has never been so popular in modern Germany.

In captivity, polar bears can live up to 30 years, however. Zoo visitors who witnessed this event said: the bear's left paw began to shake, he began to walk in a circle, after which he lost consciousness, fell into the pool and drowned. It was not possible to immediately determine the cause of death, so an autopsy was performed.

A few weeks later, experts came to the conclusion:

even if Knut had not fallen into the water and choked, he would have died anyway - the bear suffered from encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).

A group of German researchers led by Harald Pruess from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases managed to find out what caused encephalitis. It turns out that Knut was the first animal victim of a rare form of the disease called anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. The results of the work of scientists were published in Scientific Reports.

The current name for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis was given recently - in 2007, and it was discovered and classified only in 2003. It was then that a young woman with symptoms of encephalitis was admitted to a doctor named Josep Dahlmau, who recovered after a few months. Later, patients with similar symptoms began to arrive at the clinic. As a result, the doctor collected 12 similar cases, compared the analyzes of the cerebrospinal fluid and blood serum of people and found out that they suffered from the same disease. Then Josep Dahlmau and colleagues in the scientific journal Nature Clinical Practice Neurology, in which they described the disease.

Harald Pruess and Alex Greenwood, who studied the history of the bear cub Knut, claim that

it is this type of encephalitis that is the most common non-infectious type of inflammation of the brain among humans, which is why they tested Knuth for the presence of the disease.

Analyzes have shown that bear nerve cells and cerebrospinal fluid contain a very large number of special bodies that attach to a receptor called NMDA. This receptor plays an important role in learning and memory formation. The bodies that attach to it are called autoantibodies. They are characterized by the ability to interact with antigens - parts of viruses, bacterial cells or other microorganisms. According to scientists, it is the process of interaction of autoantigens with NMDA receptors that causes an inflammatory process in the brain.

In 2008, the Lancet magazine, whose authors sum up the statistics after studying one hundred cases of this type of encephalitis. It usually occurs in women (91 cases out of 100) and is associated with an ovarian tumor. All patients present with psychiatric symptoms and memory problems.

In 75% of cases, patients recovered, and the disease did not leave significant consequences. The remaining patients either died or suffered from severe disorders.

A year later, doctors suggested that it was anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis that could be the cause of many cases of epilepsy accompanied by psychiatric symptoms, for which scientists cannot explain. About it reported in the magazine JAMA Neurology.

Scientists investigating the causes of death of a bear cub claim that Knut was the first animal in which this form of encephalitis was recorded. According to the authors of the article, in fact, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis may be characteristic of other mammals as well.