CutestThingEver: Animations

Happy Easter!!!

Original photos of Zoo Atlanta's Mei Lan by bernini79.

Apr 8, 2007 4:09:00 AM | Animations, Bears, Holiday

The teddy bear that Christopher Robin Milne received for his first birthday did not start out with the name of Winnie the Pooh. Pooh originally belonged to a swan.... And Winnie originally came from a bear at the London Zoo that Christopher Robin used to play with.

Winnie was brought to England in 1914 by an army officer named Harry Colebourn. Colebourn had been trained at the Ontario Veterinary College and was attached with the 34th Regiment of Cavalry. On his way to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade and to embark to England for the war, his train stopped at White River, Ontario. There, Lt. Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub from a hunter who had killed its mother. Colebourn named the bear Winnie, after his hometown of Winnipeg. The bear became a mascot for the Brigade and followed the soldiers throughout their camp on the Salisbury Plain.

When the Brigade was called to action in France, Lt. Colebourn took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long loan. Colebourn survived the war and formally presented the London Zoo with Winnie in December 1919. Winnie became a popular attraction and lived until 1934.

The bear was Christopher Robin's favorite at the zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it.

~Text from pooh-corner.org.