It was so common for vikings to keep bears as pets that they were known as house bears. They were often allowed to just walk around like dogs, causing so much damage it eventually became illegal to keep bears in Iceland. Some royals were even crazy enough to keep polar bears.
Denmark has a "Dansk gårdhund". Norway has a "Buhund". I am not sure about Sweden. The reason we dont keep polar bears as pets in Denmark anymore is global warming. It would be unethical to keep them in warm climate. Furthermore, their daily walks was a pain in the arse, since they easily walks 3000 km a year! In Sweden they stopped keeping bears because of IKEA. They are just a bit too heavy to keep at home if your furniture is made of low grade plywood. Norway fund out the hard way, that bears and trolls fits like ... well cats and dogs, and since the Norwegian housetroll is very popular, they had to get rid of the bears.
@ArcticAC looks like it. I'd assume Sweden has a jämthund. Both are moose/bear/boar hunting dogs that find the prey and attempt to get it to defend itself, thus stop running. Not sure if the danish dog is used for hunting. Not that type of hunting anyway.
@Dan Bears are large, powerful wild animals. They are not "harmless sweeties". Puppies, kittens and babies are, not large, wild animals.
I know I sound like a killjoy, but if I can keep at least one person from being hospitalized/killed, I can live with being a killjoy. Bring on the downvotes, people, they mean nothing to me in this case.
@Dan there are no black bears in scandinavia. No grizzlies or kodiaks either. Just regular browns bears. But every year several people still end up injured by them. Bears are big predators and therefore dangerous.
There's really not much viking brutality left, but interesting pets are still there. No more bears, but Norway instead has a penguin as Colonel-in-Chief of the King's Guard nowadays. His name is Nils-Olaf and he resides in Edinburgh Zoo.
I can actually see the point of keeping a semi-domesticated bear...
Given the critters are pretty territorial, the house-bear would keep other bears at bay, by scent alone....
Of course it's a bit of a nuclear deterrence option, but once upon a time some smart cookies figured out that keeping *wolves* around would keep the other wolf packs at bay..
I can understand Iceland banning the practice, though.. Not that much useable real estate there, so it was pretty quickly *really* densely populated. Having house-bears running amok 'round the neighbours' yard gets old pretty fast..
@Grikath A "house bear" might also keep unwary burglars at bay.
Look for the bear necessities
The simple bear necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bear necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bear necessities of life.
Okay, the real lyrics had "bare"... but it's still Baloo's song.
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