"We want Knut! We want Knut" chanted a group of schoolchildren waiting to see the polar bear cub named Knut.

The 15-week-old cub, born to the zoo on December 5, is already a four-legged celebrity. Even star photographer Annie Leibovitz came to take his portrait for an environmental campaign.

In a truly stellar manner, indifferent to the attention, Knut delighted the crowds by climbing a log and sniffing curiously at the legs of his handler, Thomas Doerflein, escorted by Germany's Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

Doerflein raised Knut by hand since his mother rejected him and his brother shortly after their birth. The other cub later died.

"I'm so happy to be able to see him today," said Leila Klamann, 9, whose school class was visiting the zoo. "And he's so cute!"

According to Spiegel, Knut's popularity in Berlin, Germany, and abroad may bring 200,000 to 300,000 visitors this year alone the Berlin Zoo.

The fate of Berlin's favorite 9-kilogram polar baby stirred a media flap when an animal activist insisted that the cub would have been better off dead than raised by humans. Yes, right.