The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal — John Shaqi
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild AnimalMills, Enos A.
Philosophy
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal
Mills, Enos A.
Grizzly bear
Cubs appear to depend upon mother's milk until they are about six months
of age. Before this time they may eat a little solid food now and then,
but this is done more out of curiosity and in imitation of mother than
from desire. It is likely to be July before they do even this and late
August before they eat solid things with any regularity. They are not
likely to be weaned until just before denning-up time. The Indians in
Alaska told me that sometimes the cubs are not weaned until the second
autumn of their lives. This certainly is sometimes true, but I think it
peculiar to Alaska.
Comical and cunning the cubs appear as they mimic the mother. When she
stands up with fore paws against her breast, looking intently into the
distance, the cubs stand up with their paws upon their breasts and look
in the same direction. When mother turns or sniffs, these cunning little
imitators also turn and sniff. The cubs walk up to a spot where the
mother has been sniffing and digging and there sniff and dig. If mother
continues digging rather long, they find a place of their own and dig.
If mother reaches up and pulls down a fruit-laden limb and takes a bite,
they too must pull down a twig of some kind and at least look at it.
Around the shores of Chickadee Pond a mother grizzly and her two cubs
spent a July day digging out grass roots, willow roots, and probably
also grubs. I watched them for hours. Occasionally one took a mouthful
of grass or a bite of blue mertensia. After a while mother waded into
the pond; cubs of course followed.
The large yellow pond-lilies were in bloom, and mother went about biting
off stalk after stalk, apparently forgetting the cubs. One of them
grabbed a lily stem and bit two or three times without cutting it.
Finally, leaning back, he pulled it apart. He chewed it a little but
didn't seem to enjoy it. Then, holding the lily in one paw, he thrust
the great golden bulb into his mouth and ate it with apparent
satisfaction. The other little cub after much tugging finally uprooted a
lily. He chewed at the four-foot stalk in three or four places. Then,
taking the bulb in both fore paws, he ate it as though it were an apple.
It is ever a joy to watch a grizzly and her children. A mother grizzly
crossing a lake just south of Long's Peak swam low in the water with a
cub sitting contentedly on her back. She came directly towards the shore
where I was standing concealed behind trees. As she approached I threw a
stone into the water close to her. Wheeling about like lightning, Mother
Grizzly started at full speed for the farther shore. The cub tipped over
in the water, but hastily took a tail-hold and was towed rapidly away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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