Grizzly Bear 



Grizzly Bear 



Ursus horribilis Ord 



Length. 6 feet 6 inches. 



Description. Fur shaggy, especially long on the shoulders and 

 flanks; front claws much longer than the hind ones, and strongly 

 curved; hind foot relatively longer than in the black bear. 

 Brownish-yellow; darker on the back and legs; long hair, 

 often reddish-brown. 



Range. Rocky Mountains of Utah to Alaska. Closely related 

 varieties occur in the Southern Rockies and at Norton Sound, 

 Alaska, while a smaller ally, the Barren-ground bear, U. rich- 

 ardsoni Reid, ranges from Hudson's Bay to the Mackenzie and 

 northward. 



The grizzly bear is a great rough brute, heavy and lumbering, 

 and easily the largest and most ferocious bear to be found in 

 any part of the world. At the present day, however, he seldom 

 ventures to attack man except in self-defense. In the land where 

 grizzlies are found, only those beasts have survived that excelled 

 in keeping out of sight. Wildness has therefore of late years 

 served the grizzly better than strength and courage in the 

 struggle for existence. He still finds his great muscles useful 

 in the matter of getting a living; there is nothing lives in his 

 country that the grizzly cannot kill and carry away, with the 

 possible exception of the cougar. Indians and certain old-time 

 hunters claim that the cougar will attack and kill a full-grown 

 grizzly; but beyond their stories there seems to be no evidence 

 whatever that a cougar ever killed a grizzly that was too old to 

 be called a cub. 



In the earlier days the grizzly bear regularly hunted the 

 bison among the foot-hills of the Rockies. 



It is said that one was able to kill and drag off an old 

 bull bison weighing one thousand pounds or more. 



At the present time, when the grizzly wishes to go after 

 big game he generally hunts the horses and cattle owned by 

 the herders, and so gets himself disliked. He also hunts deer 

 and wapiti, and in the most northern part of his range an occa- 

 sional moose. 



But he lives to a large extent on much humbler fare; ram- 

 bling among the crags, with low-hung swinging head, he listens 



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