M8 tee popular science monthly 



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well known, their hibernation presents many less well-known and pe- 

 culiar features. 



In the first place, bears are the largest animals known to hibernate,, 

 and the only members of the great order Ferce, or flesh eaters, that do so. 

 However, all the species of bears do not hibernate. Some that inhabit 

 tropical Asia are active at all seasons and, according to the testimony 

 of many artic explorers, the polar bear is also. 



Grizzly and black bears in the United States generally remain active 

 until after snow has fallen and severe weather has begun, that is to 

 say, until the end of November or later. There seems to be a great 

 individual difference in this regard, however, and there are records of 

 bears being seen in all months of the year. Whether those that are 

 abroad in midwinter have been disturbed in their winter sleep or have 

 never gone into winter quarters, I am unable to say. 



In some parts of the country there was a belief among the pioneers 

 that bruin swallowed a knot of wood before entering upon his long fast, 

 the purpose being to nourish him or " to keep his stomach from 

 shrinking." 4 How this absurd notion arose, I can not conjecture. The 

 bears, like most other animals, become very fat in autumn when food is 

 plentiful, and the fat is gradually resorbed by the blood and carried 

 wherever it is needed in the body. The animal requires much less food 

 while dormant than when active and there is nothing especially myster- 

 ious or unusual about its nutrition during this period. Neither is there 

 any more reason why its stomach should " shrink " than that ours should 

 shrink when we occasionally abstain from eating on account of sickness 

 or any other reason. 



The most remarkable fact in connection with the hibernation of the 

 bears is the birth of the young during this period. With the black bear 

 this occurs in January or February and the mother remains in her den 

 for six weeks or two months longer. The young are generally two in 

 number, sometimes one and sometimes three. It must be a tremendous 

 drain upon the vital resources of the mother to nourish her offspring at 

 the conclusion of this long fast and she would be wholly unable to 

 stand it if it were not for the small size of the young which weigh only 

 a few ounces at birth and find an ample resting place upon the palm 

 of a man's hand. 



The Woodchuck 



This animal is better known in some parts of the country as the 

 " ground hog." Its appearance is familiar to most people, but it is not 

 so generally known that this clumsy, short-legged, short-tailed inhabit- 

 ant of underground burrows is a member of the squirrel family, as is 

 the prairie dog of the western plains. 



1 1 do not know how widespread this idea may have been, but I heard it as a 

 boy in southern Indiana, 40 years or more after bears became extinct there. 



