With a fish cake topped with a candle-shaped rolling pin, Knut the famous polar bear celebrated his first birthday at Berlin Zoo today.

As soon as Knut’s keeper, Thomas Doerflein, brought out the cake loaded with fish, fruit, vegetables and rice on a bed of lettuce, the playful bear bolted out of his cave to devour it before savouring the ‘candle’ to chew on for desert.

Germany’s favourite polar bear reached the milestone after a colourful year in which he became a national celebrity after being raised by zookeepers when his mother, Tosca, rejected him by leaving him on a rock to die.

He has now grown from an 800 gram (1.8 pounds) cute and cuddly ball of fur to a gangly adolescent bear weighing more than 100 kg (220 pounds).

Jasmin Sambrano of Caracas, Venezuela, was one of hundreds of animal lovers who flocked to the zoo to help Knut celebrate his big day.

“I’m here because of Knuty’s birthday,” she said.

For the past twelve months Knut-mania has taken over Germany.

After an animal rights campaigner criticised the zoo’s decision to raise Knut by hand, in comments interpreted as a call for the bear to be put down, German media and public opinion rallied behind the photogenic bear.

Thousands of people queued for hours to watch him play. He was the subject of a song – Knut ist gut – and a book, and newspapers and television stations endlessly tracked his progress.

Knut even appeared on the front cover of Vanity Fair, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

But Germany’s love affair with its favourite animal will be short-lived – within a year zoo officials expect to make plans for him to leave Berlin to mate.

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