XX 

 FOOD AND FEEDING 



THE grizzly bear is, in the technical sense of the 

 word, omnivorous; that is to say, he is both her- 

 bivorous and carnivorous, fitted by nature and accustomed 

 by instinct to feed upon flesh or to graze upon grass, to 

 dig roots, gather berries, catch fish, and lap up ants, grubs, 

 and other larvae. 



He is, however, taken by and large throughout the 

 range inhabited by him, almost as erratic in his food 

 habits as he is in color. But these frequently astonishing 

 differences in taste and dietary seem to be entirely the 

 result of environment, and, with occasional exceptions, 

 the feeding habits of the grizzly in any given region are 

 identical. 



At first sight these divergent traits and habits appear 

 puzzling, but I think that the explanation is, after all, a 

 simple one. The grizzly is not, I believe, much of a 

 traveller, and hence, those of a given region, having for 

 generations been restricted to the obtainable food of their 

 habitat, are found to have quite lost their taste for food 

 natural to the species, but which they and their immediate 

 ancestors have never seen. 



Let us, for example, consider the food of the grizzly in 



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