User blog comment:El Alamein/Venator vs. Giant Short-Faced Bear/@comment-4552610-20130805190918/@comment-5232784-20130806153341

RVD: In answer to your inquiry, the Gladiators most certainly fought bears; brown bears were, and i believe still are, native to Italy, and were found in many parts of Europe back then, even Great Britain (the last British grizzly was killed in the dark ages. Its spirit is said to roam and haunt the forest area where it was killed). Bears were used in the bloodbaths of the Roman Coliseum (One became famous, I believe its name in latin means 'Brute" or "Blunt"), and though I do not know off the bat of any particular occurence of bears being used in the arenas against Venators, it would be odd, very highly, highly, HIGHLY unlikely, that they would not be used against the Venators and Bestiarius.