Editing Bear (section)

===Entertainment, hunting, food and folk medicine===
Bears in captivity have for centuries been used for entertainment. They have been trained to [[dancing bear|dance]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Findeizen |first=Nikolai |title=History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to 1800, Vol. 1: From Antiquity to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SZexDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT201 |year=2008 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-02637-8 |page=201}}</ref> and were kept for [[Bear-baiting|baiting]] in Europe from at least the 16th century. There were five bear-baiting gardens in [[Southwark]], London, at that time; archaeological remains of three of these have survived.<ref>{{cite web |title=Elizabethan Playhouses and Bear Baiting Arenas Given Protection |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/elizabethan-playhouses-and-bear-baiting-arenas-given-protection |publisher=Historic England |access-date=4 January 2017 |date=26 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104234622/https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/elizabethan-playhouses-and-bear-baiting-arenas-given-protection |archive-date=2017-01-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> Across Europe, [[nomad]]ic [[Romani people|Romani]] bear handlers called [[Ursari]] lived by busking with their bears from the 12th century.<ref name=Fraser>{{cite book | author=Fraser, Angus M. |title=The Gypsies | url=https://archive.org/details/gypsies0000fras | url-access=registration |publisher=Blackwell |year=1995 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gypsies0000fras/page/45 45]–48, 226 |isbn=978-0-631-19605-1}}</ref>

[[Bear hunting|Bears have been hunted]] for sport, food, and [[folk medicine]]. Their meat is dark and stringy, like a tough cut of beef. In [[Cantonese cuisine]], bear paws are considered a delicacy. Bear meat should be cooked thoroughly, as it can be infected with the parasite ''[[Trichinella spiralis]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5327a2.htm| access-date=4 October 2006 |title=Trichinellosis Associated with Bear Meat| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930201027/http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5327a2.htm | archive-date=30 September 2006 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/41529.stm |access-date=4 October 2006 |title=Bear meat poisoning in Siberia  |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=21 December 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211191933/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/41529.stm |archive-date=2008-12-11 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The peoples of eastern Asia use bears' body parts and secretions (notably their gallbladders and bile) as part of [[traditional Chinese medicine]]. More than 12,000 bears are thought to be kept on farms in China, Vietnam, and South Korea for the production of bile. Trade in bear products is prohibited under [[CITES]], but bear bile has been detected in shampoos, wine and herbal medicines sold in Canada, the United States and Australia.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Black |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6742671.stm |title=BBC Test kit targets cruel bear trade |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=11 June 2007 |access-date=1 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115175324/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6742671.stm |archive-date=15 January 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="160px">
File:The dancing bear by William Frederick Witherington.jpg|''The Dancing Bear'' by [[William Frederick Witherington]], 1822
File:Theodor Aman - Ursarul.jpg|A nomadic ''[[ursar]]'', a [[Romani people|Romani]] bear-busker. Drawing by [[Theodor Aman]], 1888
</gallery>