BROOD-CARE AMONG MAMMALS 169 



for the first few months, whilst they are being suckled. But Arctic 

 explorers are frequently visited by bears during winter, and polar bears 

 in captivity do not hibernate, nor show the slightest signs of being 

 less active and less ready to feed. It is much more probable that 

 these bears, in their native haunts, hunt seals along the edge of the 

 ice even in winter, and make only temporary burrows in the snow, 

 so that it may be their habit to transport their young from place to 

 place. Raccoons carry their young on their backs, and it is probable 

 that some of other carnivores that live in trees have similar habits. 



Before they are weaned, young carnivores begin to scrape off 

 fragments of flesh from the prey that the mother has brought home 

 and so gradually acquire a taste for their future food. Before they 

 leave the lair they are taught the elements of stalking by the mother, 

 who lets them play with her tail, flicking about its tip, and training 

 them to seize hold of it and worry it. As soon as they are strong 

 enough they are taken out by the mother, sometimes by both parents, 

 on foraging expeditions. Family parties of lions have often been 

 seen by African hunters. It seems that it takes nearly a year and a 

 half for young lions to learn the business of stalking. At first 

 they go out with the parents on short excursions and wait behind 

 until the kill has been made, when they rush in and follow the 

 example of the parents in tearing the prey to pieces. During 

 this time lions frequently prefer an easy prey, attacking flocks of 

 sheep or goats and killing more than they require for food. After 

 the first year, when the canine teeth are powerful, the young lions 

 are allowed to stalk and kill their own prey, but the parents watch 

 close at hand, to be ready with assistance if necessary. The young 

 animals at first do their work in a blundering fashion, and their kill 

 can be recognised by the clumsy way in which it is mauled. Pumas 

 go out hunting with the mother when they are only a few weeks old. 

 Polar bears teach their cubs to fish and to swim. The smaller 

 carnivores all have the same kind of early training. Young badgers 

 can often be seen playing with their mother at the edge of their 

 " earth " when they are only three weeks old. Later on they go out 

 with her, trotting along in single file behind her in the hedgerows 

 and learning where to find what is good to eat and how to catch it. 

 Polecats, ferrets and weasels bring back small creatures such as mice 

 for their young to worry and eat, and later on take them out hunting. 



Many of the animals which belong to the group of carnivores are 

 not really carnivorous, but live on fruits, shoots, seeds and other 

 vegetable matter, and they also learn from their mothers how to 



