AMERICAN BEARS 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT 



(PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHERS) 



THE appearance as well as many of the habits of 

 an ordinary bear are known to most people, and 

 this has been the case for ages and generations ; so 

 that it is not at all surprising that the world's literature 

 on bears, together with the pictorial illustrations of 

 them, is enough to make a library of itself. There is 

 also a large myth-lore about bears, both in adult and 

 in juvenile history, and hundreds of times they have 

 been the subjects for the sculptor's chisel or otherwise 

 reproduced in solid form. 



No bears occur in either 

 African or Australian re- 

 gions, and only one species 

 in the Neotropical region. 



Most bears are vegetable 

 feeders, though the Grizzly 

 and Polar bears are almost 

 exclusively flesh-eaters ; it 

 is said, however, that the 

 latter will eat grass in the 

 summer time. Compara- 

 tively speaking, they are 

 all animals of considerable 

 size, differing not a little in 

 their habits and modes of 

 life. In addition to the 

 Grizzly and Polar bears, 

 the best kjiown bears of the 

 world are the common 

 Brown bear of the Old 

 World (Fig. i); the 

 American Black bear and 

 its varieties ; the Spectacled 

 bear of the Peruvian 

 Andes; the Sloth Honey 

 bear, and the Malay or 

 Sun bear; and there may 

 or may not be one or more 

 varieties or subspecies of 

 any these. Bears seem 



to have been derived from some extinct dog-like ances- 

 tor; though fossil remains of bears have been discovered 

 that belong to the typical bear family. The well-known 

 extinct Cave bear of Europe belongs in the last-named 

 group, and was a species of immense bulk. 



After a fashion, the majority of bears can manage 

 to climb trees, and I once saw a Black bear climb to 

 the top of a telegraph pole; in descending they come 

 down hind feet first, and it is said that the adult Grizzly 

 is unable to climb. 



Most flesh-eating bears are very ferocious in disposi- 

 tion and extremely dangerous in attacks on their enemies ; 

 however, the true vegetable feeders are very often, even 

 in nature, gentle and harmless. I once heard a story of 



a Brown bear in the wilds of Norway that overtook a 

 child that had gathered a basketful of berries, of which 

 fruit the animal is very fond, never molesting the little 

 peasant girl in the least; she thought all the time that 

 it was a big dog she had to deal with. 



The small black bear, with the white crescent on its 

 chest, so frequently seen in zoological gardens in this 

 country, is the Malayan bear, which is a species easily 

 tamed. In the Honey bear of India two of the upper 



incisor teeth are lacking, 

 and its lips are very ex- 

 tensile. The soles of the 

 feet in the Polar bear are 

 more or less hairy, only the 

 small pads being naked, and 

 this allows these animals 

 to walk on the ice without 

 slipping. For many years 

 past, the pelts of some of 

 the species notably the 

 Black bear of this country 

 have played an impor- 

 tant part in the fur trade, 

 thousands having been 

 shipped to Europe every 

 twelvemonth ; but the 

 skins of some bears are 

 quite valueless as furs. It 

 is the Brown bear of 

 Europe that can be so 

 easily tamed and taught to 

 stand upright on its hind 

 legs .and dance to music. 



There is much yet to be 

 learned about the bears of 

 the United States before 

 knowledge of their habits, 

 ranges, and anatomy will 

 be complete. This is the 

 more remarkable from the 

 fact that naturalists, hunters, and others of this country 

 have written about them, published pictures of them, and 

 talked about them for wellnigh three centuries. At as 

 recent a date as 1884, Prof. F. W. True, of the United 

 States National Museum, published in the Proceedings 

 of that institution a "Provisional List of the Mammals 

 of North and Central America and the West Indies," in 

 which was supposed to appear the names of all bears 

 known to science at that time in the vast region named. 

 In that list only four species weer given and no sub- 

 species. These four were the Black bear, the Grizzly 

 bear, the Barren Ground bear, and the White or Polar 

 bear. As for the ranges of these animals, even less than 

 a quarter of a century ago they were of so indefinite a 



A BROWN BEAR SCENTING GAME 



Figure 1. Of all the existing species of bears, this European Brown 

 Bear has perhaps been known as long as any of them; it is noticed 

 in works many centuries old. This is the bear that can be so easily 

 tamed and taught to stand on the hind legs and dance. 



