Speaking of Bears 



"Oh, Ranger ! Where can I see a bear?" 



The bears are, without doubt, the greatest single atttraction in the 

 parks, at least from the visitor's point of view. Geysers, waterfalls, 

 mountains, canyons, great trees centuries old, all fade into secondary 

 importance in the visitor's interest when a bear ambles into sight. 

 Furthermore, they remain of secondary interest as long as the bear con 

 tinues his antics. The rangers say that in Yosemite National Park a 

 visitor will look at Yosemite Falls, half a mile high, one minute and then 

 turn around and watch a bear one hour. 



This amazing interest of the American public in bears goes back to 

 childhood days. Boys and girls are raised on bears. They are brought 

 up on Little Goldlilocks and the Three Bears, and numerous other bear 

 tales. Bears are no longer wild animals to us. They have become per 

 sonified. They are like people, and the visitors to the parks want to treat 

 them as such. That probably explains some of the foolish things people 

 try to do with the national park bears. 



"Fooling a bear" is something that just shouldn't be done. We had a 

 bear in Yellowstone known as Mrs. Murphy. There had been several 

 complaints about Mrs. Murphy, who was accused of nipping visitors' 

 hands and feet, so a ranger was assigned to shadow her for a day and 

 see what was happening. He reported as follows : 



One Sagebrusher, for the sake of a picture, held some bacon in his 

 mouth and coaxed the bear to remove said bacon from his mouth. He 

 got his picture and also escaped without injury. That Sagebrusher was 

 lucky. 



Another tourist tried to make Mrs. Murphy jump for candy, like a 

 dog. Mrs. Murphy reached up, knocked the man's hand down so that 

 she could reach the candy. That frightened the tourist considerably, but 

 he escaped without injury. He, too, was lucky. 



A Dude, with no candy or food, held out 

 his hand as though there were candy in it. 

 That made Mrs. Murphy angry and she 

 nipped the man on the toe. He retaliated 

 by kicking Mrs. Murphy on the nose,- 

 which is a bear's most sensitive spot. She 

 responded by whacking the Dude with her 

 paw. He was bruised but not badly hurt. 

 He was lucky. 



Fully two score people fed Mrs. Murphy 



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