Bear pit

Bear pits originated as a place to keep bears used in bear-baiting. These pits were temporary structures, typically used just once.{{Cite web |date=6 September 2014 |title=Bear pits and biscuits: The sad fate of Britain's bears |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28944797 |website=BBC.com}} After the sport's popularity waned, bear pits continued to exist as a way to display bears for the public to see, and often, feed.{{Cite web |date=22 January 2014 |title=Listed status for Rosherville Gardens Bear Pit |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-25836375 |website=BBC.com}} In contrast to the ones used in baiting, these pits were permanent structures built with sturdy materials; the pit in Rosherville Gardens, for example, was made of brick. Bear pits peaked in popularity during the Victorian era, when the public developed a general fascination with exotic animals.

Several violent incidents were known to occur in British bear pits. The public generally saw captive bears as "clownish"{{Cite book |last=Croke |first=Vicki |title=The Modern Ark |publisher=Scribner |year=1997 |isbn=}} and thus feared them little. A bear escaped a pit in the Orangery at Wakefield in 1844, killing a woman and badly mauling another before it was shot dead.At the London Zoo in 1867, a man climbed into a bear pit to retrieve his hat, and was attacked by a bear, but was rescued by a zookeeper. There are rumors of captive bears eating children during this time period, but they have never been confirmed.

Bear pits have largely fallen out of favor, as many zoos now try to make their animals' accommodations more natural. Zoo visitors tend to view animals in natural settings as "active", and those in more artificial settings as "passive". Animal rights groups, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, oppose the existence of bear pits as cruel, claiming that bears cannot get enrichment from such constructions, and seek to close the few that remain{{Cite web |last=Prater |first=Danny |date=30 April 2019 |title=These Photos Show Why All Bear Pits Must Close Now |url=https://www.peta.org/blog/photos-show-long-sad-history-bear-pits/ |website=PETA}}.

A short-lived American alternative to bear pits was Edmund Heller's bear exhibit at the Washington Park Zoo. Heller attempted to simulate nature by mixing different species (namely polar, black and grizzly bears, as well as wolves) in the same enclosure. This proved disastrous, as polar bears would drag black bears into the water, drown them, and then eat them. Mixing different species is generally not practiced today.{{Cite web |date=31 October 2015 |title=Black Bear, Black Bear, Why Do You Drown? |url=https://www.mpl.org/blog/now/black-bear-black-bear-why-do-you-drown |website=Milwaukee Public Library}}

The Bärengraben of Bern, Switzerland was built in 1857. It allowed visitors to feed the bears, which resided in a concrete pit. In the early 1990s, a swimming pool and softer gravel ground were added to it, but complaints were still made. Eventually, in 2002, a contest was held to design a new bear facility. In 2009, a much larger enclosure called the Bären Park (Bear Park) was opened next to the old bear pit. The old pit still stands, but no longer contains any animals.{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Annabelle |date=25 June 2020 |title=How the Bernese Took a Stand for Their Bears |url=https://undark.org/2020/06/25/bern-bear-pit-transformation/ |website=Undark Magazine}}

Another modern bear pit is the Three Bears General Store in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Attached to a shop, the pit features live bears in a concrete pit that visitors can feed. The exhibit has been criticized as cruel by animal rights activists,{{Cite web |last=Lovett |first=Lauryn |date=2 May 2025 |title=Actor Joaquin Phoenix calls for bears' release from Pigeon Forge store |url=https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/sevierville-sevier/joaquin-phoenix-urges-three-bears-general-store-to-release-2-bears/51-a3fdad5d-bf6e-4cb5-a2ce-d1770d6b741c |website=WBIR}} and in 2010 comedy writer Cody Johnston called it "the most depressing tourist attraction ever".{{Cite web |last=Johnston |first=Cody |date=14 November 2010 |title=The Most Depressing Tourist Attraction Ever |url=https://www.cracked.com/blog/the-most-depressing-tourist-attraction-ever |website=Cracked.com}}

As part of a project commissioned by the Orangery, site of the fatal 1844 mauling, artist Rebecca Chesney created a series of portraits of those involved in the attack.{{Cite web |last=Chesney |first=Rebecca |date=2 October 2015 |title="I've finished the portraits for the Orangery project in Wakefield." |url=https://rebeccachesney.tumblr.com/post/110631579717/ive-finished-the-portraits-for-the-orangery |website=Tumblr}}

In the young adult novel series Seekers, about anthropomorphic bears, Lusa, one of the protagonists, grew up in what she calls the "bear bowl" in the Greater Vancouver Zoo.

The phrase "bear pit" has entered the common vernacular. In Scotland, the phrase bear pit is used to describe bars or public houses that are known to have a violent reputation.{{cite web |title=Dictionary of the Scots Language - Bearpit |url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/sndns275}} Another meaning of "bear pit" is for an unusually aggressive political arena, in which direct, heated attacks are common.[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10536851 What happened to bully Banks?] - The New Zealand Herald, Saturday 11 October 2008 The term bear pit is also used to describe a tournament or sparring format, sometimes also referred to as "king of the hill".

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• Menagerie
• Zoo

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060710135508/http://www.sbg.org.uk/bear.asp Sheffield Botanical Gardens Bear Pit]
• [http://www.baerenpark-bern.ch Bear parc in Bern]

{{Zoos}}

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Category:Bears

Category:Zoos

Category:Baiting (blood sport)

Category:Cruelty to animals

es:Foso del oso