List of individual bears
All actual bears are non-fictional. [citation needed] However, these are a few real bears who garnered much national or world-wide attention:
Brody the Bear
Born in January 1995, Brody made his first television appearance at the age of 12 weeks on Good Morning America. Brody has appeared in numerous films, television shows, commercials and print ads. He has also worked with some of the top wildlife photographers in the United States and appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in July 2001.
Brody and his owner Jeff Watson have appeared before over a million people throughout the United States for educational programs focusing on bears and safety while spending time in bear country hiking, camping, and fishing.
Brumas
Brumas, (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 the zoo recording its all-time record annual attendance during 1950. 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". The bear's name came from the name of her two keepers, Bruce and Sam. Brumas died in May 1958.[1]
Pipaluk
Pipaluk 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 the early 1970s. 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.[1]
Bear JJ1
In June 2006, a wild bear in Bavaria.[2] The first brown bear spotted in Southern Germany for a century, Bruno became something of a celebrity inspiring songs, toys and an online game. However, when it became apparent Bruno had killed dozens of sheep and goats, Bavaria's Environment Ministry warned that Bruno posed a serious risk to public safety.
Bruno was shot dead hours after the Bavarian authorities approved a shoot-to-kill policy.[3] His death prompted public out-cry, many questioned why a tranquilizer dart had not been used.
Hercules
Scottish wrestling bear Hercules achieved world fame when in 1980 he went missing.[4] He subsequently became a regular star of British children's television, and appeared in the James Bond film Octopussy.
His trainer, Andy Robin, used gentle giant Hercules in his act on the UK wrestling circuit in the late 1970s and early 1980s, regularly drawing audiences of 15 million viewers on ITV's World Of Sport program.
Bart the Bear
Was a male Alaskan Kodiak brown bear who appeared in several Hollywood films throughout his career.
Bear the Bear
Bear the Bear was an oddly-named bear, died in 1993 before appearing on a Canadian news report. He was a local celebrity in Winnipeg, famous for his discolored fur and sheepish personality.
Knut
Knut was born at the Berlin Zoo to 20-year-old polar bear Tosca, a former circus performer from east Germany who was born in Canada, and her 13-year-old mate Lars, who was originally from the Tierpark Hellabrunn in Munich. Tosca rejected her cubs for unknown reasons, abandoning them on a rock in the polar bear compound. Being the size of a guinea pig, Knut spent the first 44 days of his life in an incubator before zoo keeper Thomas Dörflein began hand raising the cub. Knut's need for around-the-clock care required that Dörflein sleep on a mattress next to Knut's night enclosure as well as play with, bathe, and feed him, beginning with a bottle of milk every two hours before graduating at the age of four months to a milk porridge mixed with cat food, vitamins and cod liver. Dörflein also accompanied Knut on his twice daily shows for the public and has appeared in many videos and photographs alongside the cub.
On 23 March 2007, Knut was presented to the public for the first time. Around 400 journalists visited Berlin Zoo on what was dubbed "Knut Day" to report on the cub's first public appearance to a worldwide audience. Despite Der Spiegel reporting on April 30, 2007 that Knut was "steadily getting less cute" as he increased in age, Knut continued to bring in record crowds to the zoo. There were 400,000 guests recorded in August of 2007, which was an all time high.
Knut first gained worldwide attention in part due to videos on Youtube that showed his life as a small cub. Since then, Knut has been the subject of several songs, the most successful of which were the singles "Knut is Cute" and "Knut, der kleine Eisbär" (English: "Knut, the little polar bear") by nine-year-old Kitty from Köpenick. A blog with updates about the polar bear is also maintained by a journalist at the regional public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg; it is available in German, English and Spanish. Knut has also been the subject of several DVDs, including one entitled "Knut – Stories from a Polar Bear's Nursery". He also appeared on the March 29, 2007 cover of the German Vanity Fair magazine. Another internet video found on Youtube makes a claim that Knut is in fact not a bear at all (which would invalidate him from appearing on this list) but in fact a "rare German Ice Dog."
A year later, two additional polar bear cubs born in German zoos attracted worldwide attention, drawing direct comparisons to Knut. Flocke from the Nuremberg Zoo and Wilbaer from Wilhelma were both born in early December 2007. Flocke was taken from her mother because of fears that the adult bear would harm her cub and was therefore hand raised by zookeepers. She later became a popular tourist attraction at the zoo; her trademarked name and image became the subject of several toys and games, and she was also used to spearhead a publicity campaign for the metropolitan region of Nuremberg. In contrast to Knut and Flocke, however, Wilbaer has stayed under the care of his mother and has therefore not garnered as much attention.
Binky
Polar bear, Alaskan zoo (Anchorage?). Famous for munching on two tourists, on two seperate occassions. Killed by an infection garnered from people throwing food into his pen.