The Grizzly Part 14

_Dalli_ group: _Ursus dalli_ Merriam Yakutat Bay (northwest side), Alaska.

_hoots_ Merriam Clearwater Creek, a north branch of Stikine River, British Columbia.

_sitkensis_ Merriam Sitka Islands, Alaska.

_s.h.i.+rasi_ Merriam Pybus Bay, Admiralty Island, Alaska.

_nuchek_ Merriam[2] Head of Nuchek Bay, Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska.

_Gyas_ group: _Ursus gyas_ Merriam Pavlof Bay, Alaska Peninsula.

_middendorffi_ Merriam Kodiak Island, Alaska.

_Kenaiensis_ group: _Ursus kenaiensis_ Merriam Cape Elizabeth, extreme west end Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.

_sheldoni_ Merriam Montague Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska.

_Vetularctos_ genus n.o.bis (pp. 131-133, 'North American Fauna, No. 41'): _Vetularctos inopinatus_ n.o.bis Rendezvous Lake, northeast of Fort Anderson, Mackenzie.

[Footnote 2: "Reference to group provisional."]

Will the Grizzly be Exterminated?

The grizzly bear is vanis.h.i.+ng so rapidly that without protection he is likely to become extinct. If there is good reason--and there is--for the protection of deer, elk, and the bighorn, there is every good reason why we should protect the grizzly. He is a destroyer of pests, he helps sustain a hunting-industry, he encourages many individuals to take mental relaxation and healthful exercise in the outdoors, he carries more popular and sustained interest than any other animal, and, in most respects, he is the greatest wild animal in the world. It will benefit the human race to perpetuate the grizzly, and to do this will require a few years of legal protection.

A close season for a period of years is needed. If there is an open season this should be restricted to two or three States, and it should be short. The number taken should be limited to one per person, unless a mother grizzly with cubs be killed, in which case the cubs also may be captured. The use of steel trap, deadfall, poison, spring gun, and dogs should be prohibited and the sale of hides forbidden.

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 cla.s.sed 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. Poc.o.c.k, in "A Man in the Open," with quaint, satirical philosophy goes to the bottom of the grizzly question. He says:--

"The coa.r.s.e 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 G.o.ds, 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 n.o.body 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, gra.s.shoppers, and stray carca.s.ses, 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.

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 carca.s.s. There were traces of other animals, but the guilty one could not be determined. There were eleven carca.s.ses 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 carca.s.s nor its surroundings gave any conclusive evidence for determining the cause of the cow's death. The carca.s.s 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 circ.u.mstantial; he had eaten a part of the carca.s.s.

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 "Sat.u.r.day 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 pa.s.sed--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."

Shooting is not all there is to hunting. Hunters while hunting often take on a new lease of efficiency, even though they do not get the grizzly. Often, too, they make the intimate acquaintance of another hunter, or of a guide, and return with enlarged views into human nature; or they develop a new and worth-while outdoor interest. So that, considered solely for hunting purposes, the grizzly has both a commercial and a higher value.

Any one who sees a grizzly bear in his rugged mountain home or even in a National Park, which is a wilderness-land, will receive a lasting impression. It is the character of this animal that stands out. He is of heroic size and powerfully built, but he is at all times so dignified, and so wide-awake, that his individuality never fails to impress you.

The splendid animal and the scene wherein he stood will often be recalled. Again and again you will wonder concerning him and his life, his neighbors, and his territory. The interest which you have received may lead you to revisit the wild, revivifying mountain-land in which he lives.

When the hunter ceased firing in the Yellowstone National Park, the grizzly bear was the first of the big wild animals to discover that it was safe to show himself. The wildest animal, extremely shy of being seen even at long range, he showed his superior intelligence, his strong character, in being the first to realize that times had changed and that man had ceased trying to kill the wild folks on sight. It took the other big animals a long time to learn that they were protected. Many of them relied on old experiences, and for years, on the approach of man, they ran for their lives.

National Parks are developing a friendly interest in grizzlies, and there is a growing appreciation of the grizzly's true worth. But just at present this appreciation and this sentiment are not strong enough to protect the grizzly without the formal a.s.sistance of a grizzly-protection law.

During the past twenty-five years the grizzly population has enormously decreased. The grizzly is in danger of extermination. In California, where he was once numerous, he is now extinct. He has also gone from extensive areas in all the other Western States. In the areas where he still exists the population is in most places spa.r.s.e.

It is doubtful if he is holding his own anywhere within the bounds of the United States, unless it be in Glacier National Park. The grizzly population of the Yellowstone National Park is variously estimated from fifty to one hundred. But each year numbers of cubs born inside the Park are trapped just outside of it, and old bears whose home is inside the Park are occasionally shot outside the boundary-line. It may be that the bears coming in from outside, a few of whom each year appear to move into the Park to live, may maintain the normal or possibly slightly increase the population; but this is doubtful. There are a few grizzlies in the Rocky Mountain National Park, perhaps a few in the Mount Rainier Park, and a number in four or five of the Canadian National Parks. Alaska is the grizzly country at present; but dozens of hunters are each year putting a check on its increase in grizzly population, except in the Mount McKinley National Park.

The grizzly needs protection at once, needs your active interest now. He is making his last stand and is surrounded by relentless foes.

Protection only will save him and enable him to perpetuate himself.

Without the grizzly the wilds would be dull, the canon and the crag would lose their eloquent appeal. This wild uncrowned king has won his place in nature which no other animal can fill. We need the grizzly bear--the King of the Wilderness World.

With a closed season everywhere in the United States for a few years, the bears would increase in numbers and in due time areas now depopulated would be again peopled by them. Among the grizzlies there are always adventurers who wander far away looking for new scenes. These exploring grizzlies, as numbers increased, might redistribute themselves. Grizzlies in western Oregon might wander southward and even restock the four National Parks of California, where there is now not a grizzly. But this would require a cessation of the shooting of grizzlies for a number of years.

The population might be more quickly affected by restocking. A few grizzlies could be trapped in Yellowstone and set free in these other National Parks. The problem of restocking unoccupied areas would not be difficult if there could be for a few years a general closed season. In restocking these areas the zoos could not help. So far grizzlies have not been successfully bred in confinement.

The grizzly is an educational factor of enormous potential value. An acquaintance with him will give a lively interest in the whole world of nature, in both natural history and the natural resources of the earth.

A knowledge of these will increase the enjoyment and the usefulness of every one.

In learning natural history the grizzly might well be the first life studied. Interest in him could be used to arouse interest in all life.

In the very beginnings of interest in any living thing there is a desire for information concerning its food. Soil, directly or indirectly, produces the entire food-supply of the earth. Thus the trail of the grizzly bear would lead one to the wonderful story of soil-creation and the strange, almost enchanting powers it has over our strange existence.

For the young, and perhaps for the older, the grizzly has qualities which should make him the supreme mental stimulus of the great outdoors.

A better acquaintance with him will be beneficial of itself, and an interest in him would inevitably extend to his wild neighbors and to the whole wide world of beauty and grandeur wherein he lives his adventurous life.

The eagle, our emblematic bird, has prowess; he soars, he dares the storm, and he explores the cloud scenery of the sky. He makes an appeal to the interest of a few, but the bear stirs the minds and the hearts of many. In most respects the grizzly would rival the eagle for an emblematic animal and would excel all animals in arousing a nature interest around the world.

Perpetuate the grizzly in our wild places and National Parks, and this will fill all wild scenes again with their appealing primeval spell--the master touch which stirs the imagination. An educator has called the imagination "the supreme intellectual faculty"; it is creative, original, refres.h.i.+ng. The imagination will be alive so long as the grizzly lives.

In art alone the grizzly is a subject worthy of the sculptor. He will help quicken and develop the creative imagination of any one who knows him--the grizzly of heroic art.

The grizzly probably heads the animal list in brain-power. He is still developing. He appreciates play and he has marked individuality. He is the greatest animal that is without a voice. Stories of "this animal that walks like man" ever appeal; he is the most impressive animal on the continent. He is the dominant and the most distinguished animal of the world.

THE END