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
Case 9. Silver King's Memory of His Capture. At this moment we
have a huge polar bear who refuses to forget that he was captured
in the water, in Kane Basin, and who now avoids the water in his
swimming pool, almost as much as any burned child dreads fire.
Throughout the hottest months of midsummer old Silver King lies on
the rock floor of his huge and handsome den, grouching and
grumbling, and not more than once a week enjoying a swim in his
spacious pool. No other polar bear of ours ever manifested such an
aversion for water. The other polar bears who have occupied that
same den loved that pool beyond compare, and used to play in its
waters for hours at a time. Evidently the chase of Silver King
through green arctic water and over ice floes, mile after mile,
his final lassoing, and the drag behind a motor boat to the ship
were, to old Silver King, a terrible tragedy. Now he regards all
deep water as a trap to catch bears, but, strange to relate, the
winter's snow and ice seem to renew his interest in his swimming
pool. Occasionally he is seen at play in the icy water, and toying
with pieces of ice.
Memory in Bears. I think that ordinarily bear memory for human
faces and voices is not long. Once I saw Mr. William Lyman
Underwood test the memory of a black bear that for eighteen months
had been his household pet and daily companion. After a
separation of a year, which the bear spent in a public park near
Boston, Mr. Underwood approached, alone, close up to the bars of
his cage. He spoke to him in the old way, and called him by his
old name, but the bear gave absolutely no sign of recognition or
remembrance.
How a Wild Grizzly Bear Caches Food. The silver-tip grizzly bear
of the Rocky Mountains has a mental trait and a corresponding
habit which seems to be unique in bear character. It is the habit
of burying food for future use. Once I had a rare opportunity to
observe this habit. It was in the Canadian Rockies of British
Columbia, in the month of September(1905), while bears were very
activism. John M. Phillips and I shot two large white goats,
one of which rolled down a steep declivity and out upon the slide-
rock, where it was skinned. The flensed body of the other was
rolled over the edge of a cliff, and fell on a brushy soil-covered
spot about on the same level as the remains of goat No. 1.
The fresh goat remains were promptly discovered by a lusty young
grizzly, which ate to satiety from Goat No. 1. With the remains
of. Goat No. 2 the grizzly industriously proceeded to establish a
cache of meat for future use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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