This is a list of actual bears that have been documented in history.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
- Hotfoot who became the original incarnation of the 1944 Smokey Bear advertising poster created by the Advertising Council's Rudolph Wendelin, and was discovered in the 1950 Capitan Gap forest fire.
- An old un-named bear, injured and tied up in Mississippi as part of a canned hunt for President Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear, and this event was popularized by cartoonist Clifford Berryman, resulting in the creation of the 'Teddy' Bear.
- Binky, a polar bear in an Alaskan zoo who attacked tourists who climbed into his cage in two separate incidents.
- Bruno, the first bear to appear in Germany after their disappearance from German soil over 170 years ago.
- Stanko, mascot of Serbia's 44th regiment in World War II.
