122 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by J. W. McLellan] 



(Highbury. 



POLAR BEAR. 



This beards the. most formidable of all aquatic mammals. It is almost as much at home 

 in the water as a seal. 



had the bones of his face smashed 

 and lacerated. He had an axe, 

 but said, ' When the bear sat up, 

 my courage failed me.' " 



THE MALAYAN SUN-BEAR. 



These small, smooth-coated 

 bears have a yellow throat-patch 

 like a mustard plaster, and are 

 altogether the most amusing 

 and comical of all the tribe. 

 They are almost as smooth as a 

 pointer dog, and are devoted to 

 all sweet substances which can 

 be a substitute for honey, their 

 main delicacy when wild. There 

 are always a number of these 

 bears at the Zoo incessantly 

 begging for food. When one 

 gets a piece of sugar, he cracks 

 it into small pieces, sticks them 



on the back of his paw, and licks the mess until the paw is covered with sticky syrup, 

 which he eats with great gusto. This bear is found in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, 

 Sumatra, and Java. It is only 4 feet high, or sometimes half a foot taller. It is more in 

 the habit of walking upright than any other species. 



THE POLAR BEAR. 



ICE-BEAR is the better name for this, the most interesting in its habits of all the 

 bears. It is an inhabitant of the lands of polar darkness and intense cold, and one of 

 the very few land animals which never try to avoid the terrible ordeal of the long Arctic 

 night, which rolls on from month to month. It can swim and dive nearly as well as a seal, 

 climbs the icebergs, and goes voyages on the drifting ice, floating hundreds of miles on the 

 polar currents, and feeding on the seals which surround it. Of the limits of size of the 

 ice-bear it is impossible to speak with certainty. From the skins brought to this country 

 the size of some of them must be enormous. One which lived for more than thirty years 

 at the Zoo was of immense length and bulk. When the first discoverers went to the Arctic 

 Seas, dressed in thick clothes and skins, the polar bears took them for seals. On Bear Island, 

 below Spitsbergen, a Dutch sailor sat down on the snow to rest. A bear walked up behind 

 him, and seized and crushed his head, evidently not in the least aware of what kind of animal 

 it had got hold of. When the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition was wintering in Franz-Josef 

 Land, the bears were a positive nuisance. They were not afraid of man, and used to come 

 round the huts at all hours. The men shot so many that they formed a valuable article of food 

 for the dogs. The flesh is said to be unwholesome for men. The power of these bears in the 

 water is wonderful ; though so bulky, they are as light as a cork when swimming, and their 

 strong, broad feet are first-class paddles. Whenever a dead whale is found near the shore, the 

 polar bears assemble to feed upon it. In the various searches for the Franklin Expedition they 

 pulled to pieces nearly all the cabins erected to hold provisions for the sledge-parties. In 

 one case it was found that the bears had amused themselves by mounting the roof of a half- 

 buried hut, and sliding down the snowy, frozen slope. Cubs are often brought home in whaling- 

 and sealing-ships, after the .mothers have been shot. There is a ready sale of them for 

 Continental menageries. Herr Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, by purchasing them quite young, has 

 induced bears to live on good terms with tigers, boar-hounds, and leopards. 



