Dundee’s proud maritime heritage brought frequent visitors to the city over the centuries and, in the years before television and the internet, it was not uncommon for exotic, even dangerous, creatures like polar bears to be shipped in and paraded for the viewing pleasure of the masses.
Returning from tours of the Arctic, the city’s whaling ships would, from time to time, come into port with bears aboard. And while these poor snared animals would usually delight the Victorian crowds with their antics without incident before probably being skinned for their fur, on one occasion, things went a bit astray.
In November 1878, two bears, one named Bruin, arrived in the city aboard a whaler. They had been caught and transported from Davis Strait, off Greenland, and were due to be put on public display in the city’s Commercial Street. However, as they were being transported to this site in a wooden crate with metal grating the box fell off its cart and broke open. Bruin took his chance and made a bid for freedom, bounding through the city streets.
Unsurprisingly mass panic ensued, locals taking to their heels. The Dundee Courier of November 8 reported: ‘Great consternation prevailed yesterday forenoon in the vicinity of Commercial Street owing to a Polar bear having made its escape and running at large in the streets.’
Bruin turned from Commercial Street into High Street before taking refuge in a clothier’s shop and outfitters on the corner of High Street and Castle Street (now a gift shop) run by a Mr Jamieson, where terrified staff leapt up on to the counter.
Newspapers reported that, after destroying a suit display, Bruin was distracted by his reflection in a mirror, which he began to attack, growling as he scraped and pawed at his image in the glass. As a crowd of onlookers gathered outside the shop, a small group of men equipped with a rope fashioned into a noose snuck in the back door. Tempting Bruin with scraps of meat, they were able to throw the noose around his neck and successfully re-captured him. Contemporary images tend to suggest Bruin was a fairly young bear and not a fully grown adult, which may have been rather more difficult to snare.
Bruin was duly led to a tent in Commercial Street where, safely housed within a cage, he re-joined the other polar bear and was put on display before the paying public.
Commemorating the incident, a sculpture by Fife artist David Annand depicting Bruin chasing a terrifield man now stands outside the shop.
Despite this unfortunate incident, enterprising local businessmen were not detered from bring polar bears to the city. During the 1880s at least one individual bear and a trio of cubs were purchased from the captains of whaling ships for public display.
The city’s zoo – Camperdown Wildlife Centre – has never housed a polar bear, although it has for many years been home to brown bears, among them Jeremy (who was in fact a female European brown bear), the face of breakfast cereal Sugar Puffs in the late 1960s and 70s.
For heritage walks exploring Dundee, including the city centre, click here.
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