Bruin
This is just another name for “bear.” It was a name of a bear in a Dutch children’s fable from the 12th century.
Most people know this as the name of two major sports teams: the UCLA Bruins in college sports, and the Boston Bruins in NHL hockey.
The UCLA team is very prominent with the bear visual – every version of their logo and every promotional graphic seems to have a bear on it. The Boston team is much less “bear-centric.” I found a couple versions of their logo with a bear, but most of their logos just have a big “B.”
Why I Looked It Up
It came up in Firewood Happens. The author used the word a couple of times to refer to the animal.