Did you know that the fictional Winnie the Pooh was based on a real bear? Mr. Milne often took his young son to the London Zoo to visit an orphaned black bear cub who was from Winnipeg, Canada. The Canadian soldier who took the little black bear cub to England had named him Winnie, in honour of his home town. Mr. Milne based his fictional bear on that zoo bear and wrote stories about him for his son. And that’s how a little bear cub from Winnipeg, Canada found his way into literary history.