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I'm writing about a world similar to that around the time of the Roman Empire, only they have domesticated bears and use them for warfare. I want them to be used to be able to break through enemy lines and be used in several ways, from shock troops to massive charges to demolish opposition. How would grizzly bears be trained to do this, using an ancient Roman level of technology? As bears tend to rear up when fighting, cavalry would be impractical. How else might they be used?

sphennings
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boboranonymous
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    Related, possible duplicate: would-a-bear-cavalry-be-feasible?, also related, how-effective-would-war-bears-be-against-a-pike-square. Also, see: how-useful-would-small-domesticated-omnivorous-bears-be – Escaped dental patient. Nov 02 '23 at 04:14
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    You'll need to edit this question to show how it is not asking the same questions as the listed duplicates if you want it reopened. – Monty Wild Nov 02 '23 at 04:48
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    I wrote already to ask how they would be trained (so not for the how effective would they be question) and the small bears one doesn't answer the question of using them in war, and then i edited it to say they were not for cavalry, so the question is different to all of them – boboranonymous Nov 02 '23 at 04:55
  • @boboranonymous (a) You are allowed to ask one and only one question per post. To reopen the question, you must delete all but one question. (b) How to train an animal is trivially found searching the Internet. Please note the down vote rollover, which says, "this question does not show any research effort." Indeed searching for "how to train bears" on the internet produces many results. Training them for war is no different from training them for anything else. (c) Asking "how/what/why else X?" is open-ended and prohibited (see [help/dont-ask]). – JBH Nov 02 '23 at 06:00
  • Remember that a duplicate vote is cast on the basis of answers to the duplicate target, rather than the duplicate question. What about the answers there fail to address your question? – Escaped dental patient. Nov 02 '23 at 11:19
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    I have not found a citation for this, but I remember hearing that people who took tame bears around for shows used only young bears. The claim was that they could take a cub and train it for shows. They could use it for two years and then had to kill it. There was a change to the cub around 2 years that would make it dangerous and break training. In nature, the cub stays with a mother for about 2 years and then leaves to find its own place. That change makes warfare bears very problematic. – David R Nov 03 '23 at 15:07
  • I don't see this as a duplicate of the effectiveness against pikemen query. First, that question was closed for lacking detail and clarity and really should not be used to compare with a sufficiently clear and detailed question. The other query is about bear cavalry, which this query says it's not about. This is a question of training --- methods and therefore depending from culture & military practice and thus are rules of the world. VTR. – elemtilas Nov 06 '23 at 02:50

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