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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:54:34 GMT -5
Continued.... One of the most prominent is Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, who was mentored by Chuck Jonkel while he was a graduate student at the University of Montana during the historic Border Grizzly Study. Servheen now holds sway over all grizzly bear programs on federal lands. Then there is Tom Smith, research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center, who has become one of the most outspoken proponents of the use of bear spray. Tom's carefully crafted press releases sometimes cause a stir within the bear community, such as the study he released that exposed the dangers of the incorrect use of bear spray as a bear repellent. ( Smith had noticed that people in bear country had begun spraying pepper spray around or on their boats and equipment in the mistaken belief that the red pepper would repel a bear. The opposite was true, for inert red pepper is an attractant to a curious bear. ) In addition, Smith has compiled an exhaustive computer database of bear attacks, which proves that bear spray has stopped 90 percent of bear charges, while firearms have stopped onrushing bears only about half the time.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:55:09 GMT -5
Continued.... Imprisoned within a steel culvert trap, the three-year-old male grizzly paws at the welding gate. Yesterday evening this teenage bear sneaked into the horse barn of a rural home near the Crowsnest Pass area of Southwest Alberta to steal grain. Today he was instead lured into the culvert trap by the tantalizing odor of rancid road-killed deer. Now, two hours after dawn, the young bear is frantic to escape. People are yelling and banging on the trap with iron rods. But worst of all, two devilish dogs are barking furiously at the rear gate. Suddenly, the entrance gate is raised and the grizzly scrambles out, only to be met by explosives and a fusillade of rubber bullets and bean bags painfully pounding its rump. The bear bawls in fear and outrage and gallops for the safety of the dense forest 80 yards away, but before the bear gets there, the dogs are after him, barking furiously. The frantic bear dives into the forest, and the dogs suddenly break off and retreat. At last the terrified animal feels safe, far from the horse barn, and the banging and blasting and barking.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:55:46 GMT -5
Continued.... Though the above incident may look and sound chaotic, the entire episode was carefully planned in advance,choreographed by bear biologist Carrie Hunt. It's called aversive conditioning, a revolutionary concept Hunt invented to teach grizzly bears to associate humans and their habitations with intense discomfort. "That's how aversive conditioning works," Hunt told me when I visited her at the Wind River Bear Institute compound near Florence, Montana. Grizzly bears are quick learners. It doesn't take a bear long to figure out where to find easy human food at a rural home site, and we apply the aversive conditioning to teach it to associate human habitats with an unpleasant experience. Then we set an imaginary boundary the bear cannot cross. In this case, it was the dense forest behind the horse barn. When the Karelian bear dogs got to the forest, the dogs' handlers called them off, which set in the bear's mind that anything in the thicket is safe, but anything closer is a place of terror and pain.
Nobody thought such a thing as bear shepherding, as we call it, was possible, but it has been done, and without serious injury to bears, or people or the dogs. Our results are real head-turners. In just the last three years, the state of Montana credits us with saving the lives of eighteen grizzlies.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:56:22 GMT -5
Continued.... Saving eighteen endangered grizzlies is an astounding achievement, but for Carrie Hunt, its just another accomplishment in a stellar career dedicated to saving the great bear. To say that Hunt's career in bear management began early is an understatement. "I was only eight years old when I decided to study and work with large predators," Hunt informed me. "My mother had given me Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. I was mesmerized by his stories of large predators. I think I wore the book out. All the large predators interested me, but since the grizzly was the largest predator in the West, I decided that I would become a wildlife biologist and study grizzlies.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:56:51 GMT -5
*Note ( in my own words )... Carrie Hunt's interest in studying the grizzly bear was sparked by Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. Jane Goodall became interested in Africa and the great apes after, as a child, reading Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan novels ( she hated the popular Tarzan movies ). Steve Irwin of the "Crocodile Hunter" television series discovered his love for wild animals as a child watching the Tarzan movies. I would wager there are other similar stories.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:57:34 GMT -5
Dear Chuck, Thank you for your letter and efforts of the Center for Wildlife Information. I too feel strongly that the Grizzly Bear is the last great symbol of wilderness. How may I help?
Sincerely, H. Norman Schwarzkopf General, U.S.Army Commander in Chief Operation Desert Storm
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:58:07 GMT -5
Continued.... Chuck Bartlebaugh's early adult life showed no indication that he would one day become a leading proponent for wildlife stewardship in bear country. Instead of pristine wilderness and fresh mountain air, Chuck's first love involved driving a McLaren 200 miles per hour on winding road courses. He loved cars - the faster, the better. While many speed freaks got their start behind the wheel of a hot rod, burning down the back streets of their home town, Chuck's rise to prominence in the world of Indy racing began methodically. After graduating high school in Rochester, Michigan, Bartlebaugh contacted racing teams and volunteered his services. In the early 1970s, he achieved the exalted position of driver of these elite road racing machines. "For me, there was no adrenalin rush to racing," he told me during our interview. "I found it to be relaxing. Sitting behind the wheel of one of the fastest sports cars in the world with a wall of photographers taking your picture before you left the pit created a sense of euphoria." Bartlebaugh raced in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup Series, driving an English-built McLaren designed by a team of aerospace engineers and competed against Porches, Ferraris, and Lolas. Bartlebaugh also began driving in an Indy champ car series and was being groomed for the Indianapolis 500. When the oil embargo in the late 1970s put corporate-sponsored programs on hold, Bartlebaugh's racing sponsorships evaporated, ending his hopes for a racing career.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:58:52 GMT -5
Continued.... Then one night I sat riveted to the television set and watched John and Frank Craighead on the Today Show explaining how much trouble the grizzlies in Yellowstone were in. Bartlebaugh arrived at Cooke City, Yellowstone's northeast entrance, dressed in the latest Eddie Bauer khaki photographer's outfit, including a multipocketed vest bulging with film. He stopped at a bar for a drink and the bartender asked what had brought him to Cooke City. Bartlebaugh replied, "I'm here to photograph grizzlies." The bartender eyed him with disdain. "The last thing we need around here is another @%**#%! with a camera getting killed, and our bears shot up," he snapped. The remark led to a long evening of banter, which culminated with Chuck Bartlebaugh being introduced to a local forest service ranger, who took the former race-car driver under his wing.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 1:59:25 GMT -5
Continued.... The first thing the ranger had Bartlebaugh do was change out of the designer khaki pants and into blue jeans. Then he took Bartlebaugh into the backcountry to teach him about bears. Bartlebaugh was stunned by what he learned. It turned out that many activities carried out in the presence of bears by Bartlebaugh and other wildlife photographers were wrong! By continually moving in on the animals, photographers inadvertently stressed, harassed, and provoked them. Shortly thereafter, Bartlebaugh created the nonprofit organization aptly called The Center for Wildlife Information ( CWI ). Desert Storm war hero General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the lightning strike that crushed the feared Republican Guard of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, was so impressed with CWI's educational program that he agreed to serve as spokesman for the Be Bear Aware and Wildlife Stewardship Campaign. Nicknamed "The Bear," Schwarzkopf is a fervent supporter of grizzly bear conservation who occasionally tours bear country to spread the massage for grizzly bear recovery responsible wildlife stewardship. During an excursion through Yellowstone National Park, Schwarzkopf worked hard to share his message with the public and media.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 2:08:51 GMT -5
www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/07_00/snare_bear_hair.shtml Scientists snare bear hair for DNA analysis It's a culinary teaser meant for bears only: one-cup fetid fish oil and four liters spoiled cattle blood. Biologists slosh, slather and hang this and other concoctions—catnip, castor oil and molasses—to lure bears under and over barbed wire fencing. "It's a putrid job," says Garth Mowat, a Canadian biologist and general manager at Wildlife Genetics International. But an effective one. The smells draw the bears to designated sights; the barbed wire snags their hair, and scientists collect and send it to the lab. In the root of each collected hair is enough DNA for geneticists to identify species, individuals and sex. Using techniques from human forensic science, "bears are essentially tagged without ever being touched," Mowat says. Biologists are using this data to estimate population size, distribution and genetic variation, all indications of a population's health. Scientists analyze bear hair follicles using six markers to determine species, sex, and individuals. (Scientists compare regions of DNA to identify species: Black bears, for example, have 9 to 15 more units than grizzly bears.) The larger challenge is getting the hair, which isn't as easy as it might sound. Grizzly bears weigh 300 to 800 pounds depending on their sex and the time of year. They are solitary, elusive creatures that, in the western United States and Canada, reside in dense forests. Biologists have sedated and collared them, drawn blood samples, flown overhead to count them and even positioned cameras with trip lines to capture them on film, without much success. "A lot of cameras were lost," laughs Curtis Strobeck, professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta. In 1995, undergraduate student Michael Proctor tromped through the mountains of British Columbia, Canada following black bears until he developed a procedure for collecting their hair. It turns out bears have no aversion to walking over, under and through barbed wire, as cattle ranchers will attest, when there's rotting blood on the other side. "And nothing separates the hair like barbed wire," he says. Using Proctor's technique, bear biologists worldwide are snagging bear hair for its telling DNA: for sun bears in Malaysia, Asiatic black bears in Japan, panda bears in China, spectacled bears in South America, sloth bears in Asia, and brown bears in Europe. The United States adopted this method in at least eight states for black bears and in some western states for grizzly bears. Canadian researchers completed 17 studies in the last four years estimating grizzly bear populations in British Colombia and Alberta and have three more studies in the works. This methodology could ultimately work for all fur-bearing animals, and is already being tested on lynx, bobcats, martens, and fishers, to name a few. Interested in DNA analysis for its wildlife management applications, researchers are learning how many bears there are, where they are, how they are related, paternity, maternity, and if there are ecologically significant populations that need stronger conservation efforts. They have not mapped markers to a location on the bears' 74 chromosomes—42 for giant pandas and 52 for spectacled bears—or even a particular chromosome. And there is little interest in undertaking a bear genome project. The reason, says Proctor, who is now working on his Ph.D. at the University of Calgary, is that the emphasis and funding in bear biology is ecological in nature. "The immediate threats to bears are human conflict, habitat fragmentation and cars on the highway, rather than disease or even genetic isolation," he says. Proctor is studying the DNA of 900 grizzly bears in British Columbia. Using 16 markers for paternity, pedigree and inter-population analysis, he can look at individual bears, their parents and their offspring to get a picture of grizzly bear dispersal and movement. British Columbia has an estimated 10,000 to 13,000 grizzly bears that move along the mountain ranges. Highways running east to west cut through their habitat. With data gleaned from these DNA samples, Proctor hopes to learn how much the highways impact grizzly bears: How do grizzly bears move between geographic areas? Do they cross highways? Mountain ranges? "We're using DNA to ask questions about the present and the future," he says.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 5:45:56 GMT -5
blogs.denverpost.com/library/2012/08/29/king-grizzly-bears-terrorized-colorado-1904/3207/ King of grizzly bears ‘terrorized’ Colorado until 1904 Stockmen feared him. Livestock fed him. A massive grizzly bear roamed south-central Colorado in the closing days of the 19th century. He had a peculiar gait, sort of a moseying stride that gave him his nickname, Old Mose. He was smarter than a fox, they said. Could tell if a man was armed with a rifle. Treated fence posts like match sticks and walked right through them, not around them. One cowboy reported he’d seen Old Mose pull down a running horse with one swipe of his paw, then kill it with a bite to the neck. Another report claimed he’d killed three bulls on one ranch alone. Whatever the tales, this particular Ursus horribilis earned even more fame. An old timer in the area was quoted in newspaper accounts of the day: “There were two or three men that had gone to the hills to look for him. They never returned and their bodies were never recovered.” In 1904, a savvy professional hunter named James W. Anthony came to the area with his pack of dogs. He was persuaded to go after Old Mose. After a month of tracking and searching and getting lucky, hunter met his prey on Black Mountain. Anthony’s description of the killing makes for sober reading. (Denver Post; May 15, 1904, p.3, features section) It is tempered a bit by the respectful tone used to describe the great bruin. It took four rifle shots hitting their mark to kill Colorado’s king of grizzlies. In Canon City, after dressing, Old Mose weighed about 900 lbs. He was killed just after his spring emergence, so might have weighed as much as 1,500 lbs. had he made it through the summer. His hide measured 10 ft., 4 inches long from nose to tail and was 9 ft., 6 inches wide. The Canon City Municipal Museum requested the hide, but the hunter took his prize with him back to California. He eventually gave it to the zoology department of the University of California, Berkeley. Presumably, it still sits in the vault there, where it has contributed to scientific research for 100 years.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 5:55:01 GMT -5
The Works of Theodore Roosevelt - volume 4 of 14.
A grisly will only fight if wounded or cornered, or, at least, if he thinks he is cornered. If a man by accident stumbles on to one close up, he is almost certain to be attacked really more from fear than from any other motive; exactly the same reason that makes a rattlesnake strike at a passerby. I have personally known of but one instance of a grisly turning on a hunter before being wounded. This happened to a friend of mine, a California ranchman, who, with two or three of his men, was following a bear that had carried off one of his sheep. They got the bear into a cleft in the mountain from which there was no escape, and he suddenly charged back through the line of pursuers, struck down one of the horsemen, seized the arm of the man in his jaws and broke it as if it had been a pipe-stem, and was only killed after a most lively fight, in which, by repeated charges, he at one time drove every one of his assailants off the field. But two instances have come to my personal knowledge where a man has been killed by a grisly. One was that of a hunter at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains who had chased a large bear and finally wounded him. The animal turned at once and came straight at the man, whose second shot missed. The bear then closed and passed on, after striking only a single blow; yet that blow, given with all the power of its thick, immensely muscular forearm, armed with nails as strong as so many hooked steel spikes, tore out the man's collar-bone ans snapped through three or four ribs. He never recovered from the shock and died that night.
The other instance occurred to a neighbor of mine - who has a small ranch on the Little Missouri - two or three years ago. He was out on a mining trip, and was prospecting with two other men near the headwaters of the Little Missouri, in the Black Hills country. They were walking down along the river, and came to a point of land, thrust out into it, which was densely covered with brush and fallen timber. Two of the party walked round by the edge of the stream; but the third, a German, and a very powerful fellow, followed a well-beaten game trail, leading through the bushy point. When they were some forty yards apart the two men heard an agonized shout from the German, and at the same time the loud coughing growl, or roar, of a bear. They turned just in time to see their companion struck a terrible blow on the head by a grisly, which must have been roused from its lair by his almost almost stepping on it; so close was it that he had no time to fire his rifle, but merely held it up over his head as a guard. Of course it was struck down, the claws of the great brute at the same time shattering his skull like an egg-shell. Yet the man staggered on some ten feet before he fell; but when did he never spoke or moved again. The two others killed the bear after a short, brisk struggle, as he was in the midst of a most determined charge.
Last spring, since the above was written, a bear killed a man not very far from my ranch. It was at the time of the floods. Two hunters cam down the river, by our ranch, on a raft, stopping to take dinner. A score or so of miles below, as we afterward heard from the survivor, they landed, and found a bear in a small patch of brushwood. After waiting in vain for it to come out, one of the men rashly attempted to enter the thicket, and was instantly struck down by the beast, before he could so much as fire his rifle. It broke in his skull with a blow of its great paw, and then seized his arm in its jaws, biting through and through in three places, but leaving the body and retreating into the bushes as soon as the unfortunate man's companion approached. We did not hear of the accident until too late to go after the bear, as we were just about starting to join the spring round-up.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 12:52:08 GMT -5
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills - published in 1919. The territory dominated by Old Timberline had an area of about eighty square miles. The western boundary-line followed the rim of the Continental Divide for nearly fifteen miles. Meeker Ridge and Cony Creek were other boundary-lines, while at the north stood Chief's Head Mountain and Long's Peak. Toward the south the territory narrowed and was not more than two miles across; in the center it must have been nearly ten miles wide. An extensive area lay above the timber-line. There were forests primeval, a number of canons and streams, numerous small lakes and beaver ponds. In this varied and extensive region Old Timberline had all the necessities of life and many of the luxuries of beardom.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 12:58:31 GMT -5
www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/2013/December/In-His-Own-Words-Hunting-a-Grizzly.aspx In His Own Words: Hunting a Grizzly December 13, 2013In the fall of 1884, Theodore Roosevelt went on a hunting trip to the Bighorn mountains. Although the intention was to bag an elk, he ended up shooting a grizzly bear, which he describes in a letter to his sister, Anna. This episode is described in more detail in his book, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman.“I shall not soon forget the first one I killed. We had found where he had been feeding on the carcass of an elk; and followed his trail into a dense pine forest, fairly choked with fallen timber. While noiselessly and slowly threading our way through the thickest part of it I saw Merrifield, who was directly ahead of me, sink suddenly to his knees and turn half round, his face fairly ablaze with excitement. Cocking my rifle and stepping quickly forward, I found myself face to face with the great bear, who was less than twenty five feet off—not eight steps. He had been roused from his sleep by our approach; he sat up in his lair, and turned his huge head slowly towards us. At that distance and in such a place it was very necessary to kill or disable him at the first fire; doubtless my face was pretty white, but the blue barrel was as steady as a rock as I glanced along it until I could see the top of the bear fairly between his two sinister looking eyes; as I pulled the trigger I jumped aside out of the smoke, to be ready if he charged; but it was needless, for the great brute was struggling in the death agony, and, as you will see when I bring home his skin, the bullet hole in his skull was as exactly between his eyes as if I had measured the distance with a carpenters rule. This bear was nearly nine feet long and weighed over a thousand pounds. Each of my other bears, which were smaller, needed two bullets apiece; Merrifield killed each of his with a single shot.”
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:00:22 GMT -5
letsnottalkaboutmovies.blogspot.com/2011/07/dont-make-scene-wind-and-lionthe-gospel.html The Gospel According to Theodore Roosevelt: Happy Birthday, America. The Story: President Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Keith) is enjoying his days as President. He is building the Panama Canal, and running for another term. But there is always something—in this case, the kidnapping of the widow of an American diplomat, Eden Pedacaris (Candice Bergen) by Mulay Ahmed Muhamed Raisuli the Magnificent, sherif of the Riffian Berbers (Sean Connery) half a world away in Morocco. SCOUT: What'ya bring in, Colonel? ROOSEVELT: Brought us some venison and a cougar. ROOSEVELT: Heard about the bear... ROOSEVELT: ...have you? SCOUT: Big one, I heard... COOK: Coffee, Mr. President? Roosevelt stood next to an enormous grizzly bear skin and head. Around him were various reporters for magazines such as "Colliers" and "The Nation" as well as those representing the Kane newspapers. He held the grizzly's head up. REPORTER I: Is that the bear? ROOSEVELT: This is the bear that attacked the horse camp at dawn. ROOSEVELT: He knew that men would be asleep or at their worst at dawn. ROOSEVELT: It, of course, as you've heard, injured one of the Indians severely... ROOSEVELT: ...as well as killing several horses. REPORTER I: Did you, yourself, participate in stopping the bear, Mr. President? ROOSEVELT: I regret to say, yes. REPORTER: Why do you regret, Mr. President? ROOSEVELT: Because he's a fine creature. ROOSEVELT: This was his valley. ROOSEVELT: This valley belonged to this bear. We were the intruders here. ROOSEVELT: We're used to animals taking flight at the sight of a man with a gun, but a grizzly bear fears nothing. Not man, not guns, not death. REPORTER: Do you intend to have that bear as a rug in the White House, Mr. President? ROOSEVELT: Rug? No! ROOSEVELT: No, I intend to have him stuffed and placed on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institute. He is a magnificent specimen. The grizzly bear, you know, is the true symbol of American character. ROOSEVELT: Strength, intelligence, ferocity, courage -- ROOSEVELT: A little blind and reckless, perhaps, but courageous beyond doubt. ROOSEVELT: Oh, and one other trait that goes with all the previous. REPORTER: And that, Mr. President? ROOSEVELT: Loneliness. ROOSEVELT: The grizzly bear must live out his life alone -- indomitable, unconquered, but always alone. He has no real allies, only enemies... ROOSEVELT: ...and none of them as great as he. REPORTER: You feel this is... REPORTER: ...an American trait? ROOSEVELT: Certainly, the world will never love us. They respect us... ROOSEVELT: ...they might even grow to fear us... ROOSEVELT: ...but they'll never love us. We have too much audacity... ROOSEVELT: ...and we are a little blind and reckless at times. REPORTER: Are you referring to the Panama Canal and the situation in Morocco? ROOSEVELT: If you say so... He looked back at the bear. ROOSEVELT: Yes, the grizzly bear embodies the spirit of America. It should be our symbol, not that ridiculous eagle which is no more than a dandified vulture. ROOSEVELT: "...dandified."
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:01:13 GMT -5
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Mills. Trailing the grizzly without a gun is the very acme of hunting. The gunless hunter comes up close, but he lingers to watch the bear and perhaps her cubs. He sees them play. Often, too, he has the experience of seeing wilderness etiquette when other bears or animals come into the scene. The information that he gathers and his enjoyment excel those obtained by the man with a gun. Roosevelt has said and shown that the hunter whose chief interest is in shooting has but little out of the hunt. Audubon did a little shooting for specimens. Wright had as many thrills with the camera as with the rifle. Adams was far happier and more useful with his live grizzlies than he was killing other grizzlies. Emerson McMillin was satisfied to hunt without either gun or camera. The words and sketches of Ernest Thompson Seton have given us much of the artistic side of the wilderness. Dr. Frank M. Chapman explored two continents for the facts of bird-lore and in addition to his books prepared the magnificent bird-groups in the American Museum of Natural History. Thoreau enjoyed life in the wilderness without a gun. But John Muir was the supreme wilderness hunter and wanderer. He never carried a gun. Usually he was in the wilds alone. He spent years in a grizzly bear country. But the wealth of nature-lore with which he enriched his books make him the Shakespeare of nature. The man without a gun can enjoy every scene of nature along his way. He has time to turn aside for other animals, or to stop and watch any one of the countless unexpected wild-life exhibitions that are ever appearing. Then, too, he hears the many calls and sounds, the music of the wilds. The wild places, especially in grizzly bear land, are crowded with plants and with exhibitions of the manners and the customs of animals, and are rich in real nature stories being lived with all their charm and their dramatic changes.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:01:37 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections of the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. The naturalist John Burroughs said of his friend Theodore Roosevelt: "Roosevelt was a many-sided man and every side was like an electric battery. Such versatility, such vitality, such thoroughness, such copiousness, have rarely been united in one man." Bears, especially grizzlies, were one important element of what he sought in the West. His quest was one of self-assertion, a devotion to what one historian called a "cult of manliness." The cult was a matter of pride, of establishing through personal energy and labor one's standing, not just among cowboys or bears, but in society as well. - There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from grizzly bears to "mean" horses to gunfighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid -
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:02:07 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections from the writings of Theodore Roosevelt. The Black Bear - Next to the whitetail deer the black bear is the commonest and most widely distributed of American big game. It is still found quite plentifully in northern New England, in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and along the entire length of the Alleghanies, as well as in the swamps and canebreaks of the southern states. It is also common in the great forests of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and throughout the Rocky Mountains and the timbered ranges of the Pacific coast. In the East it has always ranked second only to the deer among the beasts of chase. The bear and the buck were the staple objects of pursuit of all the old hunters. They were more plentiful than the bison and elk even in the long vanished days when these two monarchs of the forest still ranged eastward to Virginia and Pennsylvania. The wolf and the cougar were always too scarce and too shy to yield much profit to the hunter. The black bear is a timid, cowardly animal, and usually a vegetarian, though it sometimes preys on the sheep, hogs, and even cattle of the settler, and is very fond of raiding his corn and melons. Its meat is good and its fur often valuable; and in its chase there is much excitement, and occasionally a slight spice of danger, just enough to render it attractive; so it has always been eagerly followed.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:09:11 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. A Cattle-Killing Bear. Sometimes, however, a bear will take to killing fresh meat for itself. Indeed, I think it is only its clumsiness that prevents it from becoming an habitual flesh-eater. Deer are so agile that bears rarely get them; yet on occasions not only deer, but moose, buffalo, and elk fall victims to them. Wild game, however, are so shy, so agile, and so alert that it is only rarely they afford meals to Old Ephraim - as the mountain hunters call the grizzly. Domestic animals are slower, more timid, more clumsy, and with far duller senses. It is on these that the bear by preference preys when he needs fresh meat. I have never, myself, known one to kill horses; but I have been informed that the feat is sometimes performed, usually in spring; and the ranchman who told me insisted that when the bear made his rush he went with such astonishing speed that the horse was usually overtaken before it got well under way. The favorite food of a bear, however, if he really wants fresh meat, is a hog or sheep - by preference the former. If a bear once gets into the habit of visiting a sheepfold or pigpen, it requires no slight skill and watchfulness to keep him out. As for swine, they dread bears more than anything else. A drove of half-wild swine will make head against a wolf or panther; but the bear scatters them in a panic. This feat is entirely justifiable, for a bear has a peculiar knack in knocking down a hog, and then literally eating him alive, in spite of his fearful squealing.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:09:55 GMT -5
Continued.... Every now and then bears take to killing cattle regularly. Sometimes the criminal is a female with cubs; sometimes and old male in spring, when he is lean, and has the flesh hunger upon him. But on one occasion a very large and cunning bear, some twenty-five miles below my ranch, took to cattle-killing early in the summer, and continued it through the fall. He made his home in a very densely wooded bottom; but he wandered far and wide, and I have myself frequently seen his great, half-human footprints leading along some narrow divide, or across some great plateau, where there was no cover whatever, and where he must have gone at night. During the daytime, when on one of these expeditions, he would lie up in some timber coulee, and return to the river-bottoms after dark, so that no one ever saw him; but his tracks were seen very frequently. Usually the animals he killed were cows and steers; and noticing this, a certain ranchman in the neighborhood used to boast that a favorite bull on his ranch, of which he was particularly proud, would surely account for the bear if the latter dared to attack him. The boast proved vain. One day a cowboy riding down a lonely coulee came upon the scene of what had evidently been a very hard conflict. There were deep marks of hoofs and claws in the soft soil, bushes were smashed down where the struggling combatants had pressed against and over them, and a little farther on lay the remains of the bull.
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