Dead at 44
Thomas Doerflein became famous because of his devotion to Knut, the world’s most famous polar bear. After Knut was born in captivity at the Zoologischer Garten in Berlin and rejected by his mother, the zookeeper nurtured him round the clock, even sleeping near him in a sleeping bag and feeding him several times each night. But Thomas died last september of a heart attack. He was 44. Read on for the rest of the story