8. The poet Lord Byron kept a tame bear for a pet while in college
Byron kept numerous pets during his short life (he died at 36) including a Newfoundland dog which died from rabies, and for which he built a mausoleum larger than his own. He also kept at one time or another peacocks, a badger, a goat, monkeys, geese, eagles, and numerous dogs and cats, all of which had the run of his homes. His lordship retained houses in four countries, and not all of the animals traveled with him when he journeyed from one to the other. It is often reported that Byron kept an Egyptian crocodile, though if so he never mentioned one in his journals, and none were reported by his contemporaries and friends.
At one time he kept a tame bear as a pet. The bear lived with the poet in his rooms while he was enrolled as a student at Trinity College. The bear was acquired as a protest against the rules of the college, which expressly forbade dogs, meaning Byron could not have his beloved Newfoundland (named Boatswain) with him during his studies. Byron pointed out that the rules said nothing whatsoever about the keeping of bears in response to the complaints of authorities and confided to his journal that, “they asked me what I meant to do with him, and my reply was, ‘he should sit for a fellowship'”, meaning he should enroll the bear in the college.