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Flocke (Snowflake), now almost one year old, on November 19.

(© picture-alliance/dpa)

Knut, Snowflake, Wilbär - Germany has become a breeding ground for fluffy white furballs who melt people's hearts and help raise awareness about the plight of endangered Arctic wildlife as the ice that sustains it melts off the top of the globe.

First Knut the celebrity polar bear cub made his public debut to great global fanfare at the Berlin Zoo in spring 2007. He was even featured on the covers of both the US and German editions of Vanity Fair magazine, as photographed by acclaimed American photographer Annie Leibowitz.

Then a younger female counterpart aptly named Flocke (Snowflake) stole some of his thunder when she delighted visitors during her first outdoor romps in spring 2008 at the Nuremberg Zoo, around the same time that a male cub named Wilbär made a splash swimming in his enclosure alongside his mother in Stuttgart's zoo.

Now Snowflake suddenly has two younger siblings in Nuremberg, where twin polar cubs were born on November 21 to her mother, Vera, the zoo recently confirmed.

Like Knut, whose life as a newborn was considered endangered by his own mother, Flocke was hand-reared by zookeepers.

Alarm bells went off when Vera dropped her tiny offspring and showed signs of acting strangely around the cub, and after another polar bear mother in Nuremberg, Vilma, was accused of infanticide and eating her own babies in January 2008.

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Knut and his late keeper, Thomas Dörflein, entertained visitors with their antics at the Berlin Zoo.

(© picture-alliance/dpa)

"All this unsavory behavior did little to damage the high profile nature of polar bears in Germany and the twins are likely to be the subject of intense adoration until they get fat and old and start looking like every other boring old bear in the park," Deutsche Welle said on its English-language news portal, DW-WORLD.DE, on November 27.

But, even now that he is nearly two years old, Knut continues to draw fans to the Berlin Zoo, where record numbers of visitors and record profits made him the superstar of what came to be called the "Knut show." It involved a young Knut frolicking and playfighting in his outdoor enclosure with his keeper, Thomas Dörflein, who became just as famous as the polar bear cub himself.

A national outpouring of grief erupted and sympathy cards and flowers poured into the zoo when Dörflein died suddenly of a heart attack in September at 44 in Berlin.

Flocke meanwhile was raised by several keepers and continues to draw crowds to Nuremberg, as do Wilbär and his Mom, Corinna, to Stuttgart.

It remains to be seen whether Vera will be able to raise her twins on her own, or whether they, too, will be hand-reared for their own safety.

Berlin Zoo: Knut the Polar Bear

Nuremberg Zoo: Two Siblings for Flocke

Stuttgart Zoo (including updates on Wilbär)

The German National Tourist Office: Zoos in Germany

Photo Gallery: The Furry Visitor Magnets (Spiegel Online International)

Knut und Seine Freunde (Knut and His Friends, a movie inspired by Knut's life)