Much as I had been hoping to avoid this, the sheer volume of news about the first birthday of polar bear Knut is forcing my hand. Those living in a hole for the last 12 months may have missed the saga of Knut, rejected at birth by his mother, threatened by animal rights enthusiasts (who rather counter-intuitively wanted him put down), and embraced by the public for his cuteness.

Well Knut is rather less cute now. He’s a massive 100kg bear (image gallery at zoo). He recently celebrated his birthday at the Berlin Zoo where he is resident and where, as I discovered to my cost this morning, the hold music on their telephone system is screaming monkeys.

To mark this day the bear was given a cake made of fish, fruit, vegetables and rice (Reuters). Enjoy it while it lasts Knut, Deutsche Welle says three new polar bear cubs are on the way at your Berlin zoo and they’re going to be cuter than you are now.

In the inconceivable situation that someone out there hasn’t had enough of this attention seeking show off bear, you can try and beat the Great Beyond’s score of 10 out of 12 on Spiegel’s Knut Quiz.

Please note that headlines you may have come across proclaiming ‘Knut accused of engaging in politics’ concern the Kenya National Union of Teachers, not the giant celebrity fur ball.

UPDATE

In the Germany zoo cake stakes Knut has been well and truly outshone. According to Reuters, gorilla Matze and orangutan Charly celebrated 50th birthdays with a cake each at Frankfurt Zoo today. Rather than Knut’s fish-based creation, their cakes were are far tastier sounding “pastry and mandarin with cream on top — but with no sugar”, according to a zoo spokeswoman.

Image: Knut with his cake / Courtesy of the Zoo Berlin archive