The bears are briefly mentioned (as a useless expense , but also as a great attraction, and no proprietor could visit the gardens without having evidence of this in the groups that gathered round the bear pit ) in a report of the annual meeting of the proprietors of the Botanical Gardens published in the Sheffield Independent, 7 June 1856 (page 6).

A letter to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 24 Aug 1929 (page 6) from a reader recalls seeing the bears (though does not say when) The bears were not at all amusing, but miserable, wretched creatures, spending most of their time ambling round and round that wretched pit; and not many people were amused - a great many were sorry to see them in such miserable surroundings. There are many places provided for the entertainment of children, and the average boy or girl would rather be catching billyloitches, or paddling in Millhouses or Endcliffe Park, than spending an hour watching bears hellip;

Letters to the same newspaper on 24th March 1932 (page 6) state the reason they [the bears] were removed was that one day a nursemaid was holding a baby up to look at them, and one of the bears snatched it, and it was killed [this is apparently a myth], and also, I well remember the bears being in the bear pit hellip; I believe it was Thursday evenings when the band played in front of the glass houses for promenaders, and we used to be greatly interested going to to see the bears climb to the top of the poles in the bear pit.