List of individual bears

The following is a list of individual bears which garnered national or worldwide attention:

Actors

Wrestlers and performers

  • Hercules, a male grizzly bear owned and trained by Scottish wrestler Andy Robin, appeared on the UK wrestling circuit before becoming known as an actor.
  • Sackerson, was the most famous bear used in the beargardens of Elizabethan England. It is rumoured, though unlikely that Sackerson or a bear of his ilk played the part of the bear in A Winter's Tale.
  • Terrible Ted, a male American black bear from Canada trained by Canadian wrestler Dave McKigney, wrestled regularly for various North American promotions from the 1950s until the 1970s.
  • Victor the Wrestling Bear, a male American black bear (reported by some sources as an Alaskan brown bear) from Canada trained by American wrestler Tuffy Truesdell, wrestled for various North American promotions and also as an attraction at ABA games, sports shows and fairs, starting in the late 1950s. Victor also made several TV appearances including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and was in the 1969 film Paint Your Wagon with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. The original Victor died in the mid-1970s from a heart attack and Truesdell, who owned and trained a number of bears, transferred the name to another bear and continued the act until the mid-1980s. Truesdell may also have had several bears working under the "Victor" name.[20]

Mascots

Wojtek with a Polish soldier
  • Hotfoot, later renamed Smokey, a male American black bear cub, was discovered in the 1950 Capitan Gap forest fire in New Mexico, and became the original incarnation of the 1944 Smokey Bear advertising poster created by the Advertising Council's Rudy Wendelin.
  • Touchdown was the unofficial mascot of Cornell University. The Cornell University Athletic Association acquired this black bear cub in the fall of 1915. Touchdown appeared at all of the games played by the Cornell football team that year. At the games, Touchdown was tethered to a stepladder so that he could climb on the home sideline of the field. He also climbed a goal post before each game, which quickly became a tradition for the fans. This year also marked the first year Cornell football went undefeated, which led to fans believing that Touchdown was a good omen.
  • Bruno II was a male Brown Bear who served as a live mascot for Brown University from 1921 to 1928. Bruno II was one in a series of live bear mascots from Helen in 1903 through the 1960s.[21] Later, he had a brief theatrical career in a play, where they rewrote the part to allow a bear to appear instead of a lamb.[22]
  • Rocky (originally named Rakkasan), a female Asian black bear, was purchased as a cub for 40,000 yen (approximately $111) by members of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (United States) from a zoo in Kumamoto, Japan, where they were stationed during the Korean War. She made five parachute jumps, which allowed her to qualify as a paratrooper, and received a Purple Heart after being injured by shell fragments under enemy artillery fire. In 1954, at the age of 16 months, she was sent to live at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.[23][24]
  • Wojtek, a male Syrian brown bear, was adopted by a Polish army unit stationed in Iran during World War II. In order for Wojtek to accompany the unit when they sailed from Egypt to Italy, he was drafted into the Polish army as a Private. He took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944 by carrying artillery ammunition. After the war he lived in Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland.
  • Winnipeg, a female American black bear, was purchased as a cub at a train stop in Ontario, Canada, by a member of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (CAVC), who named her after his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became the CAVC mascot and accompanied the unit to England. When the unit transferred to France for combat, she was given to the London Zoo, where she lived from 1915 to 1934. Winnipeg is best known today as the inspiration for the character Winnie-the-Pooh in A. A. Milne's classic children's books.

Companion bears

Wild bears

Zoological specimens

Knut, the famous polar bear cub from the Berlin Zoological Garden, in May 2007
  • Binky, a male polar bear at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, Alaska, became famous in the summer of 1994 after mauling several zoo visitors who, disregarding safety bars and signs, got too close to the bear's enclosure.
  • Brumas, a female polar bear (born November 1949), was the first baby polar bear to be successfully reared in the United Kingdom. Raised at Regent's Park Zoo in London, she became a major celebrity and was largely responsible for zoo attendance records. Although a female, it was erroneously reported in the press that Brumas was male, and as such many members of the public believed her to be a "he". Brumas died in May 1958.[34]
  • Flocke, a female polar bear, was born in captivity at the Nuremberg Zoo in Nuremberg, Germany on 11 December 2007. After concerns over the cub's safety were raised due to her aggressive mother, Flocke was removed from the other bears in the zoo and raised by hand. She became a popular tourist attraction at the zoo; her trademarked name and image were used in a publicity campaign for the metropolitan region of Nuremberg.
  • Gus, a male polar bear at the Central Park Zoo in New York City from 1988 to 2013, came to media attention in the 1990s when he was seen obsessively swimming in his pool for up to 12 hours a day.[35] The zoo paid an animal behavioral therapist to diagnose Gus' problem;[35] the therapist concluded that Gus was "bored and mildly crazy in the way that a lot of people are in New York".[36] Gus' erratic behavior tapered off with changes to his habitat and mealtimes;[35] he was also the first zoo animal in history to be treated with Prozac.[37] From the publicity surrounding his diagnosis and treatment, Gus became a symbol of the "neurotic" New Yorker[36][38] and was the subject of several books and a play.
  • Inuka (Inuit for "Silent Stalker"), a male polar bear, was born in 1990, and one of the mascots of the Singapore Zoo.
  • Knut, a male polar bear born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden, was rejected by his mother at birth and raised by zookeepers. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. At one time the subject of international controversy, he became a tourist attraction and commercial success.[39] Knut became the center of a mass media phenomenon dubbed "Knutmania" that spanned the globe and spawned toys, media specials, DVDs, and books. Because of this, the cub was largely responsible for a significant increase in revenue, estimated at about five million euros, at the Berlin Zoo in 2007.[40] On 19 March 2011, Knut unexpectedly died at the age of four. His death was caused by drowning after he collapsed into his enclosure's pool while suffering from encephalitis.[41]
  • Monarch, a male California grizzly bear, was one of the last wild grizzly bears in California, United States. Monarch was captured in 1889 upon orders of newspaper editor William Randolph Hearst and was put on public display by Hearst at Woodward's Gardens in San Francisco. At the time he was thought to be the largest bear in captivity, and over 20,000 people came to see him on the first day of the exhibit. After his death, his stuffed body was used as the model for the bear on the California state flag.
  • Old Martin was a large grizzly bear given to George III in 1811 by the Hudson's Bay Company. The bear was sent to join the Royal Menagerie, housed at the Tower of London. Although this was the first grizzly bear in England, the king said he would rather have had been given a new tie or a pair of socks.[42][43][44]
  • Pipaluk, a male polar bear, was the first male polar bear born in captivity in Britain, and, like Brumas, became a major celebrity at Regent's Park Zoo in London during early 1968. His name came from an Inuit term meaning "little one". Pipaluk was moved from London to Poland in 1985 when the Mappin Terraces, which housed the bears, was closed. He died in 1990.[34]
  • Siku, a male polar bear, was born in November 2011. Abandoned by his mother, who produced insufficient milk to feed him, he was put into care at Skandinavisk Dyrepark (the Scandinavian Wildlife Park, Denmark). A YouTube video of him became an overnight sensation, and invited comparisons with Knut (polar bear).
  • Wilbär, a male polar bear, was born at the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany in 2007.

See also

Notes

  1. "Inspired by Late Animal Actor 'Bart the Bear'". Vital Ground Protects Grizzly Bear Habitat. voices.nationalgeographic.com. October 13, 2013. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  2. "Bart the Bear". Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife.
  3. "Bart the Bear 2". Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife.
  4. Schwartz, Terri. "Game of Thrones cast a Bear". Zap2it. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  5. "Vital Ground: Bart the Bear II and Honey Bump" Archived 2013-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, Vitalground.org, accessed May 15, 2015.
  6. http://www.bearwithus.biz/bonkers.html
  7. "SHORT TAKES : 'Grizzly Adams' Bear Dies at Zoo". Los Angeles Times. January 8, 1990. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  8. Beck, Ken, and Jim Clark. The Encyclopedia of TV Pets: A Complete History of Television's Greatest Animal Stars. Rutledge Hill Press, 2002, p. 160-161. ISBN 1-55853-981-6.
  9. "Brody the Kodiak Brown Bear". www.osegsportsmens.com. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  10. "Gentle Ben: Season One". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  11. Beck, Ken, and Jim Clark. The Encyclopedia of TV Pets: A Complete History of Television's Greatest Animal Stars. Rutledge Hill Press, 2002, p. 241-242. ISBN 1-55853-981-6.
  12. "Ronald Oxley, 46, Trainer of TV and Movie Animals, Dies." Los Angeles Times, Dec. 30, 1985, available online at latimes.com, accessed May 19, 2015.
  13. Anderson, George. "'Train Robbers' at Fulton, 'Judge Roy Bean' at Warner" (movie review), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 8, 1973, p. 7.
  14. Billington, Dave. "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean: Some Life! Some Times!" (movie review), Montreal Gazette, Feb. 17, 1973, accessed May 19, 2015.
  15. "1980: Missing Scottish bear is found". BBC News. 13 September 1980.
  16. "Montana Grizzly Encounter". Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  17. "Casey Anderson: Grizzly Bear Expert". Montana Travel. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
  18. Sharon Petzold (producer-writer), Sue Houghton (director) (2010). Grizzly Face to Face: Hollywood Bear Tragedy (television documentary). United States: National Geographic Channel.
  19. "Bear With Us". bearwithus.org. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  20. Pincus, David. "The Amazing True Story of Victor, the Wrestling Bear." Deadspin.com, Feb. 27, 2014, accessed May 22, 2015.
  21. Mackie, Peter. "And The Bear Growls". Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  22. "Bear". Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  23. Rosenthal, Mark, et al. The Ark in the Park: The Story of Lincoln Park Zoo. Univ. of Illinois, 2003, p. 79. ISBN 0-252-02861-9.
  24. "Parachuting Bear Leaves Army For Zoo," Tuscaloosa News, Oct. 24, 1954, p. 26.
  25. "Meet Casey Anderson - and his best friend, an 800-pound bear". LA Times. 2009-05-03. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
  26. Monk, Katherine. "Sundance: Interactive film, Bear 71, blurs lines between wild and wired". canada.com. Postmedia News. Archived from the original on 26 January 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  27. Makarechi, Kia (24 January 2012). "'Bear 71': Interactive Film At Sundance Tells Dark Side Of Human Interaction With Wildlife". Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  28. @KatmaiNPS. "Fattest Bear of 2018 is..." Twitter. Twitter. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  29. Bruno the bear dodges German hunt, BBC News, 19 June 2006.
  30. Hall, Allan (27 June 2006). "Outcry as Bruno the bear shot dead". The Scotsman. Edinburgh.
  31. "The Fate of Bear 399 (and Other Grizzly Matriarchs)". CounterPunch.org. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  32. "World famous black bear Hope is believed killed". Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  33. "Bear-Proof Can Is Pop-Top Picnic for a Crafty Thief". Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  34. Zoological Society of London "Famous animals" webpage, accessed October 26, 2008 Archived November 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  35. Kleinfield, N.R. (28 August 2013). "Farewell to Gus, Whose Issues Made Him a Star". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  36. Friend, Tad (24 April 1995). "It's a Jungle in Here". New York: 43–50. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  37. Frost, Warwick (2010). Zoos and Tourism: Conservation, Education, Entertainment?. Channel View Publications. p. 51. ISBN 1845412079.
  38. Kifner, John (2 July 1994). "ABOUT NEW YORK;Stay-at-Home SWB, 8, Into Fitness, Seeks Thrills". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  39. Moore, Tristana (23 March 2007). "Baby bear becomes media star". BBC. Retrieved 21 April 2007.
  40. Boyes, Roger (13 December 2007). "Berlin Zoo culls creator of the cult of Knut". The Times. London. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
  41. "Celebrity Polar Bear Knut Is Dead". Spiegel Online. 19 March 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  42. Kennedy, Maev (18 October 1999). "Tower's old grizzly back on show". Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  43. "The Tower of London: Discover The Wild Beasts That Once Roamed The Royal Menagerie". www.hrp.org.uk. Historic Royal Palaces. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  44. Spragg, Iain (23 May 2014). "A Grizzly Sight, 1811". London's Strangest Tales: Historic Royal Palaces: Extraordinary but True Stories. Pavilion Books. ISBN 978-1-84994-189-1. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
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