46 * * * * * "OA, Ranger!" 



Illustrating the intelligence of bears, Ranger Chapman tells the story 

 of Betsy, the big black bear that used to come to the back door of the 

 mess house when the cook called. The cook used to give Betsy a pail full 

 of scraps with the admonition to "bring the pail back." Half an hour 

 later, Betsy would come back out of the woods, the handle of the empty 

 pail in her jaws. "I won't claim that she washed and dried the pail after 

 each meal, but she never failed to bring it back," says Chapman. 



Lest the impression be created by these remarks about our bears that 

 they are the scavengers of the forests, let us consider the bear's diet. As 

 a matter of fact, bears are omnivorous. They will eat almost anything. 

 Garbage meets with their entire approval, once they have adjusted their 

 stomachs to rough food by eating certain roots and herbs after coming 

 from hibernation. But the bears lived in Yellowstone long before the 

 advent of the hotels and camps and the "combination salad." They eat 

 berries, green grass, bulbs, and certain wild flowers, such as dogtooth 

 violets, snow lilies, and spring beauties. They are not too fastidious to 

 eat wild onions. They like nuts. A mouse or a gopher or a trout is a 

 relished tidbit, and ants and ant eggs make fine hors-d'oeuvre. 



To see a bear amble along, one would think he is too slow to catch 

 these little animals. Yet a bear can show the most amazing bursts of 



speed, when occasion demands. Trout 

 fishing is an example. Mr. Bear lies on 

 the bank of a trout stream, one paw idling 

 in the water, to all intents and purposes 

 sound asleep. Suddenly like lightning 

 comes a flash of his paw, and a trout is 

 flopping on the grassy bank, and a thor 

 oughly alert bear is licking his chops in 

 contemplation of fish for supper. 



It has been but a few years since the 

 bears of the national parks were harassed 

 by visitors and regarded as menaces. 

 When the National Park Service was 

 formed, it was decided to exclude dogs 

 from the parks. That was really the beginning of the era of friendship 

 between mankind and the bears. The rangers were criticized then, and 

 still are for that matter, for permitting the bears to roam at large 

 through the parks. Now, of course, there would be a tremendous pro 

 test from the public if we did anything to interfere with the opportunity 

 to see the bears. The Dudes and the Sagebrushers demand their bears. 

 The present generation has been raised on bear stories, and real, live bears 

 give them the thrill of their vacation. That is why they are the greatest 

 single attraction in the national parks. 



