Six years ago a polar bear captured the attention of Germany.
His name was Knut, and he was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth. After being rescued by zookeepers, Knut became the first polar bear to be born and survive at the Berlin Zoo in some three decades.
In lieu of his mother, Knut was raised by his keeper at the Berlin Zoo. Before long the cuddly Knut became a nationwide sensation, and he even made it to the cover of the German Vanity Fair.
Then, in 2011, Knut died unexpectedly after suffering a brain aneurism in his enclosure and drowning.
But now the celebrity polar bear is back and on display at Berlin's Natural History Museum. In a procedure known as dermoplasty, a model of Knut's body was created using a skeleton of the animal, and taxidermists covered the model with the polar bear's actual pelt.
Knut is displayed in the entrance to the Natural History Museum, and will be there for one month.
"I think people will accept Knut, because this is a very dignified model," Johannes Vogel, the museum's director, told Reuters. "People who knew Knut very well while he was alive recognise their Knut here again."
