no] Animals in the Wild 



OTHER PETS 



Guinea Pigs: If you adopt a skunk, a raccoon, or a related wild 

 animal, you will have a lively hobby to share with your youngster. 

 That old-time favorite among mammal pets, the guinea pig, is 

 perhaps a more conservative choice. Given proper care, it is prac- 

 tically odorless, and easy to feed. However, its habit of breaking 

 out in a shrill whistling sound may be disconcerting if you live 

 in a city and must keep your pets in an apartment or a garage. 



Hamsters: Hamsters are comparative newcomers to the ranks of 

 furry pets. These rodents look like fat-faced stubby-eared squirrels, 

 but are smaller. They have no specialized tastes in food and are 

 free from unpleasant odors. Friendly and winning in their ways, 

 hamsters retain some of the interesting habits of wild creatures- 

 such as hoarding food until they are ready to consume it. Many a 

 hamster has a routine of packing food into the cheek pouches that 

 extend over its shoulders. It carries the food to a hiding place and 

 tucks it away; then at night for it tends to indulge in nighttime 

 activity the hamster digs up the buried food and nibbles away 

 contentedly. It is not, by the way, a native American, but an 

 import from Eurasia. 



BEARS NOTED GOURMETS 



Nursery stories present such an appealing picture of Mother 

 Bear, Daddy Bear, and Baby Bear that a child is all too likely to 

 think of this closely knit family group as being true to life. Let's 

 look at the facts. 



The mother-and-baby bear relationship does really exist in 

 nature, but as far as Daddy is concerned, we shall have to remove 

 him from the scene if we are to be faithful to the facts. He actually 

 goes off by himself, taking no responsibility for feeding, protecting, 

 or educating the young: The mother does it all. In this respect 

 bears differ from wolves, foxes, and coyotes in each of those 

 families the father does his full share when it comes to bringing 

 up the children. 



The Playful Bear Cub: Bear cubs are not handicapped by the 

 father's absence, as the mother takes care of their needs in the 



