Wojtek, Amazing Bear

Everybody is talking about Wojtek, the amazing bear. Wojtek died in Edinburgh Zoo in 1963. He was 22 years old. Wojtek understood Polish. He wrestled with Polish soldiers, who used to jump into his enclosure in the Zoo to play with him. Wojtek had lived with the Polish Army since he was an eight week old cub. Two solider, Piotr and Jan, driving in an army convoy along hairpin bends in the mountains of present day Iran, met a little shepherd boy. He was hungry. Those two soldiers had come out of some of the worst prison camps in all human history. They knew what hunger meant. They gave the boy food, but then they noticed that he had a sack. Something was wriggling inside the sack. It was a little bear cub. Using sign language, the boy explained that the bear's mother had been shot by hunters. He gladly exchanged the bear cub for more food and a magic army knife, with blades that opened in all directions.

the soldiers called the bear Wojtek (Voytek)after the patron saint of Poland, St. Wojciech. The little bear was in a bad way, almost dying. The soldiers diluted condensed milk with water, put it in an empty bottle, stuffed a rag in the neck of the bottle and, siting comfortably on Piotr's knee, Wojtek drank up the milk. After that he adopted Piotr as his mother...

Jenny has just written a book about Wojtek, the bear whose story brings smiles to everyone's faces. He even has his own web site now, and there are plans to put up a statue to him beside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh