The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild AnimalMills, Enos A.
Philosophy
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal
Mills, Enos A.
Grizzly bear
I once saw a grizzly and cub walking leisurely along the top of a ridge
above timber-line, the cub with long strides following in mother's
footprints. There were perhaps six or more inches of snow. I sat still.
They were coming almost towards me. Watching carefully with my glass, I
noticed that the cub was limping. He suddenly sat down and bawled. The
mother, after walking on several steps, turned to look at the cub, who
was holding his hind foot between his fore paws and examining his hurt.
I heard him whimper two or three times, and finally mother went back.
She looked down at the bottom of the foot rather indifferently, then
turned and walked on. The cub followed after.
When they passed near me the mother rose suddenly on hind legs, stood
with fore paws held against her chest, and looked and looked, and
sniffed and sniffed. Little cub, forgetting his sore hind foot, stood up
with little paws against his breast, stretched his neck, looked, and
sniffed--a perfect little imitation of the mother. She moved off several
steps and stopped on the very edge of a precipitous ridge to scout. The
cub placed his fore paws against mother's side and from this secure
position peeped over and beyond her. But they did not detect me and soon
went leisurely on.
Two miles farther I crept as close as I could and paused to watch. The
mother was digging, the cub watching eagerly. As her digging continued
for some time, he moved away, sniffed two or three times, and then began
digging rapidly on his own account. While both were digging, there was a
whir of wings and a sweep of shadows, and a flock of white ptarmigan
alighted among broken ledges near by. While I was watching them, a flock
of mountain sheep came along the out-thrusting ridge and paused to play
for a few moments on the sky-line. In pairs they faced, then reared up
and sparred with their horns; they cut lively circles around one
another. A rugged, snowy peak loomed grim behind the scene, and the
dense forest spread away for miles below. The bears, the ptarmigan, and
the sheep, the white peak, the purple forest, and the blue sky gave me a
striking experience and left a splendid picture. As I turned to go, the
cub was giving all his attention to the play of the sheep.
The almost continual play of the cubs is a never-ending source of
interest. They race, they wrestle, they box, and they play hide and
seek with utmost enthusiasm. They climb upon mother's back, they swat
and pummel her and maul her. She will endure this by the hour with
absolute indifference. Mother sometimes plays with the cubs but more
often lets them play with her, or, unconcerned, simply watches them in
their scrambles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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