3^4 



MAMMALIA 



omnivorous. They have the peculiar habit of washing (soaking) 

 food before eating it. 



The bears ( Ursidae) are plantigrade (flat-footed) animals with 

 long claws that are not retractile. They are terrestrial and omniv- 

 orous. Very few of them are able to climb trees. The polar bear 

 has a pure white coat the year around. In the winter, it lives on 

 fish, seals, walruses and the carcasses of whales, augmenting its 

 diet in the summer by vegetable matter. It reaches a height of 

 fifty inches and a length of over seven feet and may weigh over one 

 thousand pounds. In captivity if polar bears are furnished with a 

 large swimming pool, they can endure hot weather as well as the 

 black bear (Hornaday). 



The brown Kodiak bear of the Kodiak Island ranges from Sitka 

 to the extremity of the Alaskan peninsula. It reaches a length of 

 about ten feet, and weighs nearly two thousand pounds. It is, 

 however, a timid animal. It feeds on salmon and small mammals, 

 but in the summer almost becomes a vegetarian.* 



The grizzly bears have high shoulders, brown hair with silvery 

 gray tips and may reach a weight of about twelve hundred pounds. 

 In Yellowstone Park, they have become celebrated for their excessive 

 friendliness to visitors who at times are disappointed to discover 

 that the animals are not as tame and harmless as dogs. (Figure 

 2i6.) 



The black bear is a timid animal and an excellent climber. It is 

 still to be found in the Adirondacks and the mountains of Pennsyl- 

 vania and West Virginia. It feeds on berries and fish and robs 

 "bee-trees." The black bear has a brown phase, brown (cinnamon) 

 and black cubs sometimes being found in the same litter. 



The glacier bear., found in Alaska, the smallest species of bear in 

 America, reaches a height of but two feet. Its color is bluish gray 

 except for the dark brown muzzle. 



The Mustelidae are small, fur-bearing animals such as the otter, 

 mink, weasel, marten, wolverine, skunk and badger. The North 

 American otter is still found in the South and also in Northwest 

 Canada and Alaska. It lives in a burrow usually under the roots 

 of a large tree growing near the water. It reaches a length of about 



* In the spring when he emerges from hibernation the Kamschatkan brown bear 

 eats sea-weed, later he grazes on herbage, and in the middle of June feeds on the migrat- 

 ing salmon. In August, he eats wild peas, in September he eats berries and in later 

 October, just before hibernating, he feeds luxuriously on ground-marmots. (Elton.) 



