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
In a zoo one day, a piece of hard-tack that a grizzly bear wanted fell
into the hands of a black bear. The black bear dipped the hard-tack in
the water and then started to take a bite. Evidently it was too hard. He
put it in the water again, and while it soaked gave his attention to
something else. While the black bear was not looking, the grizzly,
standing on the farther edge of the pool, stirred the water with a fore
paw and started the hard-tack toward him on the waves. The instant the
first wave touched the black bear he looked around, grabbed the precious
hard-tack, which was rapidly floating away, and, pushing it to the
bottom of the pool, put one hind foot upon it. How very like the mental
processes of human beings!
One day in North Park, Colorado, I came upon the carcass of a cow that
wolves had recently killed. It lay in a grassy opening surrounded by
willow clumps. Knowing that bears were about, I climbed into the
substantial top of a stocky pine near by, hoping that one would come to
feast. A grizzly came at sundown.
When about one hundred feet from the carcass the bear stopped. Standing
erect, with fore paws hanging loosely, he looked, listened, and
carefully examined the air with his nose. The grizzly is eternally
vigilant; he appears to feel that he is ever pursued. As the air was not
stirring, I felt that he could not scent me in my tree-top perch. It may
be, however, that he faintly caught my lingering scent where I had
walked round the opening. After scouting for a minute or two with all
his keen senses, he dropped on all fours and slowly, without a sound,
advanced toward the willow clumps.
In places of possible ambush the grizzly is extremely cautious. He is
not a coward, but he does not propose to blunder into trouble. When
within thirty feet of the waiting feast this bear redoubled his
precautions against surprise and ambush by walking round the carcass.
Then, slipping stealthily to the edge of a thick willow clump, he flung
himself into it with a fearful roar, instantly leaping out on the other
side ready to charge anything that might start from the willows; but
nothing started. Standing erect, tense in every muscle, he waited a
moment in expectant attitude. Then he charged, roaring, through another
willow clump, and another, until he had investigated every possible
place of concealment near the carcass. Not finding an enemy, he at last
went to the carcass.
When he had feasted for a few minutes he suddenly rose, snarled, and
sniffed along my trail for a few yards. He uttered a few growling
threats. That a grizzly cannot climb a tree is a fact in natural history
which gave me immense satisfaction. But the bear returned to the carcass
and finished his feast. Finally, having raked grass and trash over the
remains, he doubled back on his trail and faded into the twilight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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