The geographical range of the grizzly bear is extensive. It is
well-known that the great chain of the Rocky Mountains commences on the
shores of the Arctic Ocean, and runs southwardly through the
North-American continent. In those mountains, the grizzly bear is
found, from their northern extremity, at least as far as that point
where the Rio Grande makes its great bend towards the Gulf of Mexico.
In the United States and Canada, this animal has never been seen in a
wild state. This is not strange. The grizzly bear has no affinity with
the forest. Previous to the settling of these territories, they were
all forest-covered. The grizzly is rarely found under heavy timber,
like his congener the black bear; and, unlike the latter, he is not a
tree-climber. The black bear "hugs" himself up a tree, and usually
destroys his victim by compression. The grizzly does not possess this
power, so as to enable him to ascend a tree-trunk; and for such a
purpose, his huge dull claws are worse than useless. His favourite
haunts are the thickets of _Corylus rubus_, and _Amelanchiers_, under
the shade of which he makes his lair, and upon the berries of which he
partially subsists. He lives much by the banks of streams, hunting
among the willows, or wanders along the steep and rugged bluffs, where
scrubby pine and dwarf cedar (_Juniperus prostrata_), with its rooting
branches, forms an almost impenetrable underwood. In short, the grizzly
bear of America is to be met with in situations very similar to those
which are the favourite haunts of the African lion, which, after all, is
not so much the king of the forest, as of the mountain and the open
plain.
The grizzly bear is omnivorous. Fish, flesh, and fowl are eaten by him
apparently with equal relish. He devours frogs, lizards, and other
reptiles.
He is fond of the larvae of insects; these are often found in large
quantities adhering to the under sides of decayed logs. To get at them,
the grizzly bear will roll over logs of such size and weight, as would
try the strength of a yoke of oxen.
He can "root" like a hog, and will often plough up acres of prairie in
search of the wapatoo and Indian turnip. Like the black bear, he is
fond of sweets; and the wild-berries, consisting of many species of
currant, gooseberry, and service berry, are greedily gathered into his
capacious maw.
He is too slow of foot to overtake either buffalo, elk, or deer, though
he sometimes comes upon these creatures unawares; and he will drag the
largest buffalo to the earth, if he can only get his claws upon it.
Not unfrequently he robs the panther of his repast, and will drive a
whole pack of wolves from the carrion they have just succeeded in
killing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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