Knutitours 17 years

25.1.2025 by Mervi

Today Knutitours (Knuti’s Magazine and the Knuipe) celebrates it’s 17th (!) anniversary! I haven’t had time to prepare a new ‘birthday article’ so I just refreshed an ‘oldie’ – it’s the thought that counts. – The journey has been long and there have been crashes along the path but like the Fenix bird Knutitours has always risen from the ashes.

Why make collages when there are hundreds of thousands photos of our beloved bears? I guess the answer is that it’s simply such great fun! Everybody making collages knows that seeing a photo immediately makes you think how you could use it in a collage. Maybe it’s a way to express our feelings?

Here’s a selection of pictures made 2007 – 2010 published earlier as illustrations for stories in Knutitours.

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The collages of TD and Knut were made in the summer 2008.

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I’m still sad and asking why when I think that our Dream Team isn’t with us any more but looking at these collages makes me remember the happy days and I can smile again. I hope you can do the same.

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The Dream Team – always in our hearts

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Of course, Knut is very interested in sports and he’s always supporting his team.

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– Hey, this thing is too heavy! I certainly need more calories!! Sylvia, Marcus, Ronny – where’s my dinner?????

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My enclosure must be clean and tidy!

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This is for all the besserwissers and yellow papers!

A new era began when Fräulein Flocke entered Knuti’s life. I guess it was Teddybärenmutti who first informed us about her motto: THINK PINK. What fun it was (and still is!) to read Mutti’s stories!

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A romantic dinner for two

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Flocke is a bear lady filled with energy and great ambitions. There was a time when she wanted to be a ballerina or should I say a flockerina? Maybe she gave up that career because it’s not so easy to dance ballet carrying a handbag…..

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Baking croissants for Knuti

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On a Halloween tour – Trick or Croissant!

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Knut and Flocke wanted to make some changes in the enclosure and decided to do the job themselves.

Again something happened…. Rasputin aka Raspi came to Nuremberg from Moscow and we had to accept that Knut and Flocke weren’t meant to be a couple.

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Two great philosophers

However, everybody soon fell in love with the charming Russian bear and the three bears became good friends.

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Knuti, Flocke and Raspi spent their vacation together in the Alps.Don’t they look cute?

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A girl needs her beauty nap.Flocke soon realized Raspi could do much more than just entertain. Well, we all know how hard it is to find a good cleaning aid!

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– Raspi, I think you should have undies while wearing the kilt!

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Raspi’s night cap(s)

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The knuditcard with unlimited amount of money on the account has given our bears possibility to travel a lot. Today I wish we all had unlimited Knuditcards so we could buy the Orsa Predator Center!

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I think this photo was taken during their vacation in Trinidad & Tobago.

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Venice is, of course, a must even for polar bears…..

Talking about Italy ….. in the Autumn 2009 again something BIG happened. Signorina Giovanna from Hellabrunn, Munich came to Berlin to live with Knuti while her enclosure was rebuild.

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The welcome dinner for La Donna

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Suddenly the trojka had become a four-leaf glover!

We know what has happened after the year 2010 but let’s remember the good old days today!

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Sorry, I messed up your cute face with my kisses but I just couldn’t resist…..

Thank you all for the 17 years! The journey goes on – welcome to fly further with the Knutitours!

Bear hugs to everybody from Mervi

PS. I want to thank all readers and, of course, all the eminent reporters/photographers that make it possible for me to keep Knutitours flying!

12 Comments

  1. Happy Birthday, Knutitours!
    Dear Mervi!
    Thank you for this wonderful place.
    The collages are beautiful and heartwarming.
    Hugs
    Ludmila

  2. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Knutitours,
    Already 17 years: it seems a long time and yet, it passed very swift. Yes, there have been good times, bad times, even crashes, BUT there have never been dull days. Even when the front doors were blocked for one or another reason, we found an new entrace, by preference with the chimney.

  3. Dear Mervi,
    This is a great birthday and your photo and collage selection is absolutely the best for today’s anniversary with its wonderful memories of the absolutely magical time with Knut!

    The fact that your blog still exists and continues to inspire is thanks to your tireless work and patience, which has also had to overcome many technical problems over the years and has often made your work more difficult.

    Even if the number of active commenting readers has dwindled somewhat, we can always rely on our regular visitors and even those who have sadly had to leave us due to death are fondly remembered.

    Many thanks for your daily entries and reports from many zoos and animal parks throughout Europe, where many of our former polar bear cubs have travelled to and where we can continue to follow their development.
    Thanks to your extensive contacts, we also learn about the lives of polar bears and many other animals from many other zoo reporters.

    Best wishes to you as our blog queen and I hope that you continue to enjoy blogging and that we can meet here every day!

    With best wishes for you, Vesa & Mimi
    Britta-Gudrun

    Liebe Mervi,
    das ist ein großartiger Geburtstag und deine Foto- und Collagenauswahl ist absolut die beste zum heutigen Jubiläum mit ihren wunderbaren Erinnerungen an die absolut magische Zeit mit Knut!

    Dass dein Blog heute immer noch besteht und begeistert ist deiner unermüdlichen Arbeit und Geduld zu verdanken, die im Laufe der Jahre auch viele technische Probleme zu bewältgen hatte und dir die Arbeit oftmals erschwert hat.

    Auch wenn die Zahl der aktiv kommentierenden Leser etwas geschrumpft ist, auf die Stammbesucher ist Verlass und auch jene, die uns leider schon von Todes wegen verlassen mussten, gehört unsere liebevolle Erinnerung.

    Vielen Dank für deine täglichen Eintragungen und Berichte aus vielen Zoos und Tierparks europaweit, wohin viele unserer ehemaligen Eisbärbabies ausgereist sind und wir ihre Entwicklung weiterhin verfolgen können.
    Dank deiner weitreichenden Kontakte erfahren wir auch von vielen anderen Zooreporterinnen und Zooreportern aus dem Leben der Eisbären und vielen anderen Tieren.

    Liebe Grüße an dich als unsere Blog-Queen und mit der Hoffnung, dass dich weiterhin die Lust und Laune an der Bloggerei nicht verlässt und wir uns hier täglich treffen können!

    Mit den besten Wünschen für dich, Vesa & Mimi
    Britta-Gudrun

  4. Dear Mervi!
    Congratulations on 17 years of Knutitours! I hope that you will continue to have fun and enjoy your blog for a long time to come!
    We can’t thank you enough for keeping the memory of Knut and this special time with many friends alive and for spoiling us with lots of great reports, photos, collages and imaginative stories about polar bears and other wonderful animals!
    Your archive is a real treasure and will continue to bring us much joy in the future.
    It’s great to know you and to be part of this community!

    Hugs and paw waves
    Anke

  5. Liebe Mervi, DIR und allen anderen,die Dich in diesem wunderbaren Blog durch ihre Beiträge tagtäglich unterstützen, gilt mein allerherzlichster Glückwunsch❣
    Die 17Jahre, die der Blog nun schon besteht, trotz vieler Widrigkeiten, die es zu bewältigen galt,gibt etwas von der MAGIE wieder, mit der KNUT uns bezaubert hat…🐻‍❄️💝
    Auch wenn er selbst viel zu früh gestorben ist, lebt er in den Collagen,den zahlreichen Foto- und Videogrüßen, die hier aus vielen Teilen der Welt eintreffen den Geschichten und Informationen dazu und in unserem Herzen weiter…🐻‍❄️💖
    Verbunden mit einem großen DANKESCHÖN und den besten Wünschen, nicht nur für Mervi, sondern für ALLE, die diesen Blog gestalten, sende ich liebe Grüße an diese eisbärenstarke KNUTITIS

  6. Dear Mervi

    All the best for Knutitours !
    How time flies. Ich kam durch
    Flocke zum bloggen und stieß
    erst 2010 zur Knut-Community.
    Inzwischen ist mein eigenes
    Blog auch schon über zehn
    Jahre am Start. Ohne Knut
    und Flocke wäre ich nie
    zum Computer gekommen…

    Alles Gute für Knutitours
    wünscht Christiane Ffm.

  7. Mervi Thank you for everything. That is what Paddington said when he met The Queen so I think it fits the occasion.
    Flocke has been a Teddybaerenmutti to Hope, Tala, Indy and Yuma.
    Raspi is on his way to Denmark to help defend against the man in Washington.
    It has been some journey Croissants still vanish from the Knuipe so we know our fluffy waiter is still with us.

  8. Mervi,

    Congratulations on your 17th anniversary of Knutitours. As the old saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun”.

    Beer hugs,

    Dave

  9. Although we are sadly missing our wonderful Knut, it is still fun to revisit those magical times with Knut, Flocke, Raspi, Giovanna having such adventures. Over the years, Knuti’s Weekly, now Knuti’s magazine, has changed and expanded, and become the premier polar bear and zoo journal worldwide, always something interesting to learn, and always new cute animals to admire. Thanks for all your hard work over the years, and many more.

    Molly

  10. Dear Mervi, a big thank you for keeping Knuti’s Magazine so funny with your collages and interesting and of course for your work and dedication. The time flies, already 17 years, all began with Knut and now we know nearly all the polar bears over the world thanks to KM. Even that I am not every time very active in comments, I follow it up since nearly the beginning. Thank you dear Mervi for all, big hugs

  11. Liebe Mervi!

    Vielen Dank für die zauberhaften Erinnerungen an die vergangenen Jahre.
    Ich kann mich sehr gut an alles erinnern, was damals passiert war und werde es mit Sicherheit nie vergessen.

    Liebe Grüße an euch alle!

    Yeo

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