Most big game has had some protection for years; the grizzly has had
none. He is not a bad fellow, there is no just claim against him, but he
has paid the penalty of being misunderstood. He has been classed as a
menace and relentlessly pursued as though a dangerous criminal. Men
follow him the year round, with guns, dogs, horses, traps, and poison.
He is even trailed to the hibernating-den and slaughtered without any
chance for his life.
Fear of bears and prejudice against them is all too often taught and
developed in childhood. Mothers and nurses hush children by telling
them, "Bears will get you if you're not good." People, however, are now
learning that bears are not ferocious, that they do not eat human flesh,
and that in the wilds the grizzly flees from man as though from a
pestilence.
Mr. Pocock, in "A Man in the Open," with quaint, satirical philosophy
goes to the bottom of the grizzly question. He says:--
"The coarse treatment grizzlies gets from hunters makes them sort of
bashful with any stranger. Ye see, b'ars yearns to man, same as the
heathen does to their fool gods, whereas bullets, pizen, and
deadfalls is sort of discouraging. Their sentiments gets mixed, they
acts confused and naturally if they're shot at they'll get hostile,
same as you and me. They is misunderstood and that's how nobody has
a kind word for grizzlies."
Grizzlies are walking mouse-traps. They are, like birds, destroyers of
pests, and give us services of economic value. They are useful for what
they eat; their food is made up in part of mice, rats, rabbits, ants,
grasshoppers, and stray carcasses, and the remainder may be considered
of little or no value to man.
A grizzly came down into a rancher's meadow in southern Colorado and
"rooted it up like a hog." The owner was up in arms and one morning
killed the invader. Curious as to what the grizzly could have been
eating, he sent for a local butcher. His "insides" showed, among other
things, the remains of thirty-four mice, one rat, and one rabbit.
Rarely does a grizzly kill cattle. This killing, when done, is by one
grizzly. Perhaps ninety-nine out of every hundred grizzlies never kill
any stock or big game. Then, too, when a grizzly kills cattle he
usually makes a business of it, and if one should get the habit he could
be specially disposed of. Protection to the grizzly would not be at the
expense of live stock or big game.