88 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



" even in cold and frosty weather, a Polar Bear, 

 when being trained, will get completely played 

 out long before any ordinary Bear would con- 

 sider he had begun." 



J. Alden Loring, who studied the antics of two 

 Polar Bears which for ten years were exhibited 

 in the New York Zoological Park, bears testi- 

 mony to the genuinely playful disposition of the 

 animals. They would amuse themselves for 

 hours with an airtight beer-keg. which they 

 would force under the water in their swirnming- 

 tank when it came to the surface, much as a 

 child would keep a rubber ball bouncing on the 

 sidewalk ; they engaged in bona-fide wrestling 

 bouts; and one was a very good juggler with a 



which proved to be the large male Bear now in 

 the New York Zoological Park, swimming among 

 the small broken pans. \\'e lowered the launch 

 and started after him. . . . Finally we suc- 

 ceeded in cutting him off by running between him 

 and the pan for which he was making. . 

 He dove, came up alongside, and smashed the 

 boat a terrible blow. 



" The Bear seemed to have an idea of getting 

 into the launch, and we had to punch him away 

 with the boathook. Finally we succeeded in 

 roping him, and this time I took good care to 

 leave the rope slack until he had put his fore- 

 legs through it, when I took a turn with our 

 end of the rope just as the Bear was busy climb- 



"^fcl...- 



Photograph by J. W. McLellan 



AN ANGRY POLAR BEAR 



The Polar Bear is not the heavy, inactive animal that he appears to be. He 

 can swim and dive nearly as well as the seal, and climbs icebergs rapidly 



])iece of bone, which he would throw up into the 

 air with evident enjoyment. 



.Most of the Polar Bears now shown in the 

 menageries and zoological parks were captured 

 when young, but a few years ago Paul J. Rainey 

 succeeded in bringing from the Arctic a full- 

 grown male. This was such a difficult, hazard- 

 ous, and noteworthy undertaking that some ac- 

 count of it may well be given place here. The 

 first Bear captured, being noosed round the neck, 

 was strangled in being hauled to the deck of 

 the ship. Of the second and successful capture, 

 Mr. Rainey writes in the Nciv York Zoological 

 Society's Bulletin: 



" On Thursday, August 4th, we sighted a large 

 Bear that the Eskimos took to be a female, but 



ing out on the ice. ... It was a wonderful 

 sight to see this enormous .brute with a strong 

 rope just behind his fore shoulders. He would 

 rear on his hind legs, bite at the rope, and jump 

 up and down ; but . . . we steadily and surely 

 dragged him towards the edge. Finally, seeing 

 that the inevitable was coming, with a vicious 

 growl, he plunged into the water. . . . \\'e 

 towed him to the ship, swung out the crane, fas- 

 tened the hook on to the rope, and in the twink- 

 ling of an eye Mr. Green, the mate, had hoisted 

 him high into the air and swung him over the 

 ship's deck." 



After several attempts to demolish the cage in 

 which he had been placed, in consequence of 

 which a sailor was set to watch the Bear day 



