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| The coat-of-arms of Bern |
The current issue of Keeper Contact deals with bears in zoos with particular emphasis on the changes in housing and husbandry over recent decades that have made it possible to keep and breed bears successfully without the inmates suffering the psychological consequences of boredom in captivity. Also included is a history of the famous bears and the bear pits of Bern in Switzerland—the epitome of old-school bear husbandry. Bern, apparently, still has its Brown Bears but housed close to—and incorporating—the modified pits in a modern artificial habitat.
As I read the article I remembered that I had taken photographs of the bear pits during a school trip to Switzerland in August 1955…and here they are, a reminder of how poorly bears were kept in the 19th and 20th centuries, this iteration of the pits having been constructed in 1857:
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| The bear pits shown in a painting from 1880 |
...and we did see other things in Bern on this very brief visit but this is all I remember:
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