€U <Bri33fg 



ing about one fifth of one per cent of her weight. A 

 baby kangaroo at birth is even smaller proportion- 

 ally, however, and is said to weigh less than one 

 tenth of one per cent of the mother's weight. A baby 

 blue whale is about four per cent of the weight of 

 the mother and sometimes weighs three tons and 

 has a length of twenty-five feet. 



Why is the young grizzly so small? It will readily 

 be seen that while hibernating, neither eating nor 

 drinking for a few months, the mother grizzly would 

 not be able to nourish two or more very lusty 

 youngsters. It is probable that in the process of 

 evolution Nature selected the small grizzly cubs to 

 perpetuate the species. * 



While visiting the Blackfeet Indians in western 

 Montana one February, I saw a young Indian 

 woman nursing two baby grizzly bears. The 

 mother grizzly had been killed a day or two before 

 and the cubs taken from the den. They were little 

 bits of warm, pink life, scantily covered with hair. 

 Each weighed not more than one pound. They were 

 blind and toothless, but had sharp tiny claws. 

 They had their eyes open in about fourteen days, 

 and early began to cut their teeth. For several 

 days the Indian woman suckled the cubs, then she 



26 



