202 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



and has "never yet found a clear case of killing by the bear." 12 On the 

 other hand, Lorenzen says he saw a bear kill a sheep, but does not be- 

 lieve they are all killers. 13 A. H. Howell reports the killing of an elk calf 

 by a black bear 14 and A. B. Howell charges the Florida black bear with 

 the destruction of calves and hogs. 15 Seton reports their having killed 

 deer and moose. 16 



Bailey says the grizzy kills cattle, deer and other large mammals. 17 

 Bell estimates the damage done by a stock-killing bear at $500 per an- 

 num, much higher than that done by any other animal except the wolf 

 and mountain lion. 18 



That bears are omnivorous is well known and may be easily ob- 

 served about the camps and garbage dumps in our western national 

 parks. They eat all sorts of fresh meat, carrion, insects, plants, roots, 

 nuts, etc. They may often be seen turning over logs and rocks in the 

 search for worms, insects and other invertebrates. Like all omnivorous 

 animals, they take the food that is most readily obtained when they 

 are hungry, selecting their food only when not very hungry. Two men 

 with bear hounds killed 182 bears within a radius of 10 miles from 

 their ranches, in order to protect their hogs, which were feeding upon 

 acorns in the oak thickets, but when the acorns were falling in sufficient 

 quantity the bears would leave the hogs alone and eat acorns. 19 Ligon 

 says bears in New Mexico are "unexcelled" in locating remote or iso- 

 lated areas which are favored with an acorn, juniper or pinyon mast, 

 and in California they frequent oak groves to "feast upon the rich 

 harvest of acorns." 20 



Bears are particularly fond of bees and their honey, and one destroyed 

 about fifty hives of honey bees in a few nights. 21 One Vermont bear 

 stomach contained no animal matter, but was filled with vegetable mat- 

 ter, chiefly Indian turnip. 22 An Oregon bear ate the berries from a small 



12 Anthony, California Fish and Game, ix, 59, 1923. 



13 Lorenzen, A sheep-killing bear, California Fish and Game, ix, 151-152, 1923. 



14 Howell, A. B., The black bear as a destroyer of game, Journ. Mammalogy, n, 36, 

 1921. 



15 Howell, A. H., N. Amer. Fauna, No. 45, p. 29, 1921. 



16 Seton, Lives of game animals, n, Part I, pp. 163, 1929. 



17 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 193, 1926. 



18 Bell, Hunting down stock killers, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1920, pp. 

 289-300. 



19 Bailey, Biological survey of Texas, AT Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 186-192, 

 1905. Brooks, Forest and Stream, January 10, 1914, p. 17, as cited by Seton, Lives 

 of game animals, n, Part I, pp. 160-162, 1929. 



20 Ligon, Wild life of New Mexico, p. 95, 1927. Henshaw, Ann. Kept. Chief of 

 Engineers, U. S. Dept. War, for 1876, Part 3, p. 528. 



21 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 188-192, 1905; No. 49, p. 191, 1926. 



22 Sanborn, The food of the black bear, Amer. Naturalist, vi, 493, 1872. 



