t^i <B;n33(g 



National Parks are developing a friendly inter- 

 est in grizzlies, and there is a growing appreciation 

 of the grizzly's true worth. But just at present this 

 appreciation and this sentiment are not strong 

 enough to protect the grizzly without the formal as- 

 sistance of a grizzly-protection law. 



During the past twenty-five years the grizzly 

 population has enormously decreased. The grizzly 

 is in danger of extermination. In California, where 

 he was once numerous, he is now extinct. He has 

 also gone from extensive areas in all the other 

 Western States. In the areas where he still exists 

 the population is in most places sparse. 



It is doubtful if he is holding his own anywhere 

 within the bounds of the United States, unless it be 

 in Glacier National Park. The grizzly population 

 of the Yellowstone National Park is variously esti- 

 mated from fifty to one hundred. But each year 

 numbers of cubs born inside the Park are trapped 

 just outside of it, and old bears whose home is in- 

 side the Park are occasionally shot outside the 

 boundary-line. It may be that the bears coming in 

 from outside, a few of whom each year appear to 

 move into the Park to live, may maintain the nor- 

 mal or possibly slightly increase the population; 



280 



