io 4 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



In case of danger or when leaving on a long 

 foraging expedition the mother usually sends 

 her cubs up a tree. They faithfully remain in 

 the tree until she returns. One day in Wild 

 Basin, Colorado, while watching a mother and 

 two cubs feeding on travelling ants, the mother 

 quietly raised her head then pointed her nose 

 at the cubs. Though there was not a sound 

 the cubs instantly, though unwillingly, started 

 toward the foot of a tree. The mother raised 

 her forepaws as though to go toward them. At 

 that the cubs made haste toward the tree. At 

 the bottom they hesitated; then the mother 

 with rush and champing Whoof! simply sent 

 them flying up the trunk. Then she walked 

 away into the woods. 



In the treetop the cubs remained for hours, 

 not once descending to the earth. It was a 

 lodgepole pine sixty or seventy feet away and 

 several feet lower than my stand, on the side 

 of a moraine. For some minutes the cubs stood 

 on the branches looking in the direction in which 

 their mother had disappeared. They explored 

 the entire tree, climbing everywhere on the 

 branches, then commenced racing and playing 

 through the treetop. 



At times their actions were very cat-like; 

 now and then squirrel-like; frequently they were 

 very monkey-like; but at all times lively, inter- 



