The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild AnimalMills, Enos A.
Philosophy
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal
Mills, Enos A.
Grizzly bear
Though the problem of getting a living makes up most of the grizzly's
daily programme, he knows the wisdom of taking time off and having a
change from the routine of life. The ability to concentrate in eager
play is probably one of the best evidences of the grizzly's unusual
brain-power. It is good to know that, although most of the time he lives
alone and takes things seriously, he also has the power to relax and to
build and restore himself in play. This may help to give contentment to
solitary life in home territory.
When well fed, the grizzly sometimes strolls over his estate and pauses
to watch the antics of other wild life. He will stand in a stream to
see the ways of water-ouzels. The sliding of otter at play appears to
interest him, and I have discovered otter-slides by following his tracks
to them. Once, when I was enjoying the play of a number of beaver racing
and splashing in a pond, a grizzly watched them for a time from the edge
of the woods, then came out on the dam and sat down where he could
better see them. Though a solitary and self-contained baron, he has many
entertaining interests.
There are times at home, or abroad, when the grizzly is not deeply
interested in anything, when time hangs a little heavy on his hands, or
on his mind. Sometimes at home he doesn't quite know what to do with
himself. He isn't hungry, he can't think of any place where he cares to
go, he isn't interested in swimming, he doesn't even want to play. He
doesn't care to lie down and sleep. He starts off languidly, stops,
moves on, rears up, takes a bite out of the bark of a tree; but he
doesn't care for the bark to eat and doesn't even look up to see how
high he has bitten.
The grizzly is a descendant of a long line of wanderers and may
occasionally explore surrounding territory for sheer adventure. If much
harassed by settlers, he will move to a permanent home in lands far
distant. It would be comparatively easy for a grizzly to become
acquainted with four or five thousand miles of territory. He travels
rapidly, has endurance, and in a single night could cover a hundred
miles or more.
Some bears get the idea of territorial expansion and go forth to seize a
part of a neighbor's hunting-ground. Thus one bear may be annoyed by
another who makes too frequent raids into his domain, and feel called
upon to defend his territory against the invader. When past prime a bear
is sometimes driven forth into an unfriendly world by a young, vigorous
conqueror.
On one occasion I tracked a grizzly for sixty miles from the margin of
its home range. It traveled along a line that indicated it had a
definite place in mind to which it was going. It explored a cañon
region, and, a day or two later, as tracks in the snow showed, went back
to its old range along the trail it had followed in leaving it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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