@DAVID: there isn't any nordic mythology or local history that fits. The original plaster model was made 10 years before the zoo opened and its title was 'a good heist' (det gode kup). When the zoo opened in 1935 the bronze statue was made based on the plaster model. An opening gift to the zoo from a local brewery. The sculptor, C.J.Bonnesen had died a few years earlier. I'm not aware of anything that suggests he made it for a zoo or even knew a bronze statue would be made from his plaster model. No one knows for sure what the sculptor intended when he made it but it fits in the zoo and has become one of the most famous statues in Aalborg. Today everyone calls it 'bear man' (bjørnemand) instead of the original 'a good heist'.
