Characteristics and Habits 209 



that the bear that ran away had done this before he knew 

 that he was not fast in the trap. The head of the dead 

 bear was chewed to such an extent that her most intimate 

 friends would not have recognized her, and, upon taking 

 off her skin, we found great masses of clotted blood under 

 the hide that showed how fearfully she had been mauled. 



Why the male had killed her can, of course, only be 

 surmised; but the facts seemed to point to only one con- 

 clusion. The two had come to the pen, as the tracks 

 showed, from different directions. The female had, of 

 course, come first, as she had been caught in the trap, but 

 the male must have arrived at about the same time, or 

 the one in the trap would have dragged it from the pen. 

 Probably, being exasperated by her predicament, the 

 female had been unable or unwilling to reciprocate in 

 love-making, and the male had become enraged and killed 

 her. 



This is one of the experiences that lead me to believe 

 that these bears do not travel together during the mating 

 season. It also leads me to doubt the claim sometimes 

 made that they are more pugnacious at this season than at 

 any other; else this one, already enraged and disappointed, 

 would surely have attacked us as we approached him. 



I have never yet seen a whole family of grizzlies to- 

 gether; that is, the male, female, and cubs; and I do not 

 believe that they consort together in this way. I am, in- 

 deed, inclined to the opinion that the male will kill the 

 young when they are under four or five months of age. I 

 have noticed that a mother bear, when with her young 

 cubs, takes every means to avoid meeting any male bear, 

 and is always cranky and ready to scrap with any other 



