ANIMAL BEHAVIOR WALKER 275 



walking along a trail and a bear would be going in the opposite 

 direction. They would meet face to face and the bear would try to 

 get away in the direction it was headed. In doing so, it would 

 frequently loiock over the man, sometimes mauling him a little; but 

 the bear would always run away if it had a chance. On other occa- 

 sions the man had shot the bear but had not killed it, and the bear 

 was merely fighting an enemy to save its own life. In at least one 

 instance a man had clambered over a log in a dense forest and had 

 jumped down on a sleeping bear. Naturally, the bear woke up 

 fighting, as from its viewpoint it had been attacked. The most fre- 

 quent occasions of so-called attacks were when men had tried to 

 capture bear cubs or had in some way frightened the little fellows, 

 who set up a cry for mother. As mother is a courageous creature, 

 she rushes to the rescue, frequently with disastrous results to the 

 man. In none of these cases could I feel that the bear was to 

 blame, for viewing each situation from im. entirely disinterested 

 angle, it was obvious that the bear was in the right. 



Most carnivores who engage in combat must protect their ears 

 and eyes. Good examples of animals that get their ears out of the 

 way in attacks are the cat and dog, both of which lay their ears 

 back when danger threatens. This action is not merely intended 

 to produce a more ferocious expression. Its chief purpose is to get 

 the ears down as close to the head as possible where they will be 

 least in danger of being bitten or scratched. The eyelids are par- 

 tially closed and the eyebrows are drawn down to protect the ej^es. 



Most of the common rabbits {Sylvilagus) and hares {Lepus) in 

 the United States live mainly above ground and are exceedingly 

 swift-footed and alert to avoid the host of enemies that prey on 

 them. If they were not alert they would not survive in the exposed 

 locations where they regularly live. 



In marked contrast to the behavior of the rabbits is that of a 

 host of the small mammals that have their dens, nests, or burrows in 

 the ground or among rocks where but few enemies can reach them 

 or where enemies can reach them only after considerable digging. 

 These little creatures instead of taking immediate alarm and fleeing 

 at the first disturbance remain perfectly quiet in their dens, where 

 the enemy, unless able to detect them by scent, has no means of 

 knowing they are at home. Notable among these little creatures are 

 the pocket mice {Perognathus) and kangaroo rats {Dipodomys) ^ 

 charming, dainty little creatures that bear only a superficial re- 

 semblance to mice or rats. They are highly specialized rodents that 

 live in the western United States and in Mexico. Some of them 

 occupy the areas of wind-blown sand or sections where the vegeta- 

 tion is exceedingly sparse and where protective cover is very sparse 



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