Highest-ranking bear

A polar bear named Juno, a resident at Toronto Zoo in Ontario, Canada, was made the official live mascot and an Honorary Private of the Canadian Army on 27 February 2016 (International Polar Bear Day). On her first birthday (11 November 2016), she was promoted to Honorary Corporal. On turning five years old, Juno received another promotion to Honorary Master Corporal on 11 November 2020.

Juno (named after Juno Beach where Canadian soldiers landed on D-Day in World War II) along with her brothers, Hudson and Humphrey, act as "Arctic ambassadors" to raise awareness around climate change and its impact on species such as polar bears.

Juno isn't the first bear to be enlisted by the military. One of the most famous bears of all time is Wojtek ("Happy Warrior"), an orphaned Syrian brown bear who was acquired by the Polish army in Iran in April 1942. In order for him to accompany them, he was initially bestowed the rank of private in 1943 but was later promoted to corporal after his heroic assistance supplying ammunition to troops during the Battle of Monte Cassino in early 1944. To commemorate his actions, a bear carrying a shell was added to the official seal of the 22nd Transport Company. Post-war, Wojtek was retired and transferred to Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland, UK, in 1947 where he lived until passing away, aged 21, in 1963.

Juno isn't even the first military polar bear, nor the first ursine army mascot to travel to the Scottish capital city. In autumn 1919, a polar bear named Baśka Murmańska accompanied a battalion of evacuated Polish soldiers marching through Edinburgh. Acquired at a market in northern Russia in 1917, she was later designated with the rank "Daughter of the Regiment" and had her own military rations.