During rambles in the mountains through the years I have investigated
more than fourteen cases in which the grizzly was charged with killing
cattle. In a number of instances there was not a trace of a grizzly near
the carcass. There were traces of other animals, but the guilty one
could not be determined. There were eleven carcasses that had been
visited by grizzlies; six of these animals had been killed by lions, one
by poisonous plants, one by wolves, two by stones that rolled from a
land-slip. In the eleventh case neither the carcass nor its surroundings
gave any conclusive evidence for determining the cause of the cow's
death. The carcass had been fed upon by coyotes, wolves, lions, and both
black and grizzly bears. But what killed the cow? It might have been
lightning or disease, a wolf or a lion, or possibly a hunter. Many
hunters are not up on natural history and shoot at the first object that
moves. The only evidence against the grizzly was entirely
circumstantial; he had eaten a part of the carcass.
The killing of wild life is not in my line. I am not a hunter. But in
the hunting-industry the grizzly heads the list. The hunter will pay
more for a shot at a grizzly than for a shot at any other, and often all
other, big game. Hunters frequently spend from one thousand to many
thousands of dollars in going after the grizzly. They will work harder
and longer for a grizzly than for any other animal.
But the grizzly-hunting industry is coming to an end through decreasing
numbers of grizzlies. A short time ago the "Saturday Evening Post" said:
"The betting is a thousand to one that you will never kill a grizzly
inside the United States. There are a few left but not many; and all are
highly trained in suspiciousness and resourcefulness."
If the hunting of grizzlies is to continue, the grizzly must promptly
have some protection. Mr. J. A. McGuire, editor of "Outdoor Life," has
been working for years to bring about legal protection and intelligent
understanding of bears. At last it looks as though he would succeed. But
much work is yet to be done before all States give bears proper
protection, before bear natural histories are rewritten and bears are
appreciated at their real, their high, worth. Writing as a
hunter-naturalist, Mr. McGuire says:--
"When the grizzly bear shall have passed--and he is found in such
lamentably small numbers now that his exit from our midst is but a
question of years--there shall have disappeared from our mountains
one of the sublimest specimens of animal life that exalts the
western wilderness. As a sporting trophy, his hide stands at the top
of the list of American wild animals--one which sportsmen from all
over the world have come here to secure. Nowhere else in the world
can the grizzly bear be found except in western North America, and
we as sportsmen naturalists should see to it that his demise is not
hastened and that his life shall be preserved to posterity."