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Historical Perspectives on Captive Wild Animals: the Case of Quebec’s Captive Zoo Polar Bears, 1936-1942 with George Colpitts
*Only available online*
Whether in nature or in captivity, wild animals are imagined differently in changing historical circumstances by humans. Join historian George Colpitts from the University of Calgary as he presents an archival 1940 educational film showing Quebec’s famous/infamous zoo polar bears. Between 1936 and 1942, three polar bears from Devon Island in Canada’s Arctic gained international fame as performance divers at the Charlesbourg Zoo. The bears’ life history, public presentation and tragic deaths suggest the ways that humans often gain affection in animals, especially those from the wild, when they feel they have dominated those very animals in their close proximity or captivity.
George Colpitts teaches environmental history at the University of Calgary. His books include Pemmican Empire: Food, Trade and the Last Bison Hunts in the North American Plains, 1780-1882 (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife to 1940 (UBC Press, 2002).