The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal ObservationsHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Science
The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals: A Book of Personal Observations
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Animal behavior
The Lesson of the Polar and Grizzly. The polar bears of the north,
and the Rocky Mountain grizzlies, a hundred years ago were bold
and aggressive. That was in the days of the weak, small-bore,
muzzle-loading rifles, black powder and slow firing. Today all
that is changed. All those bears have recognized the fearful
deadliness of the long-range, high-power repeating rifle, and the
polar and the grizzly flee from man at the first sight of him,
fast and far. No grizzly attacks a man unless it has been
attacked, or wounded, or cornered, or _thinks_ it is
cornered. As an exception, Mr. Stefansson observed two or three
polar bears who seemed to be quite unacquainted with man, and but
little afraid of him.
The great California grizzly is now believed to be totally
extinct. The campaign of Mr. J. A. McGuire, Editor of _Outdoor
Life_ Magazine, to secure laws for the reasonable protection of
bears, is wise, timely and thoroughly deserving of success because
such laws are now needed. The bag limit on grizzlies this side of
Alaska should be one per year, and no trapping of grizzlies should
be permitted anywhere.
The big brown bears of Alaska have not yet recognized the true
deadliness of man. They have vanquished so many Indians, and
injured or killed so many white men that as yet they are unafraid,
insolent, aggressive and dangerous. They need to be shot up so
thoroughly that they will learn the lesson of the polars and
grizzlies,--that man is a dangerous animal, and the only safe
course is to run from him at first sight.
Bears Learn the Principles of Wild Life Protection. Ordinarily
both the grizzlies and black bears are shy, suspicious and
intensely "wild" creatures; and therefore the quickness and
thoroughness with which they learn that they are in sanctuary is
all the more surprising. The protected bears of the Yellowstone
Park for years have been to tourists a source of wonder and
delight. The black bears are recklessly trustful, and familiar
quite to the utmost limits. The grizzlies are more reserved, but
they have done what the blacks have very wisely not done. They
have broken the truce of protection, and attacked men on their
own ground.
Strange to say, of several attacks made upon camping parties, the
most serious and most nearly fatal was that of 1917 upon Ned
Frost, the well-known guide of Cody, Wyoming, and his field
companion. They were sleeping under their wagon, well wrapped from
the cold in heavy blankets and comfortables, and it is to their
bedding alone that they owe their lives. They were viciously
attacked by a grizzly, dragged about and mauled, and Frost was
seriously bitten and clawed. Fortunately the bedding engaged the
activities of their assailant sufficiently that the two men
finally escaped alive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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