THE BIG GAME OF ALASKA 



631 



BEARS 



It is probably quite safe to say that 

 Alaska is the home of more different 

 kinds of bears than any other country 

 of equal size in the world. No fewer 

 than 13 kinds, as recognized by recent 

 mammalogists, live in the Territory. The 

 distinctions among some of these are 

 based largely upon osteological charac- 

 ters apparent only to specialists, so to the 

 ordinary observer the bears of Alaska 

 resolve themselves into four groups — the 



The brown bears, typified by the huge 

 species ( Ursus middcndorffi) of Kadiak 

 Island, are the most interesting of 

 Alaska's bears. They are of immense 

 size, greatly exceeding the Rocky Moun- 

 tain grizzlies and all other bears except 

 the polar bear and their own relatives of 

 the Siberian coast. Even the extinct 

 cave bear is by no means a giant in 

 comparison with them. They are con- 

 fined almost exclusively to the coast re- 

 gion, ranging from Bering Sea through- 



NATURALIST RETURNING WITH ELEVEN CARIBOU SKULLS AND HORNS FOR AMERICAN 

 MUSEUMS: GLACIER MOUNTAIN., NEAR EAGLE, ALASKA 



brown bears, the grizzlies, the black 

 bears, and the polar -bears. Even this 

 classification cannot be followed with 

 certainty by amateurs, for although the 

 extreme types are sufficiently distinct, 

 some of the smaller varieties of the 

 brown bears are easily confused with 

 some of the larger ones of the grizzlies.* 



* The confusion in the classification of the 

 Alaska bears is due in part to lack of sufficient 

 material for careful study. Hunters and resi- 

 dents of Alaska would confer a favor upon all 

 naturalists and sportsmen if they would pre- 



out the Alaska Peninsula and some 

 outlying islands, and thence south along 

 the Pacific coast to the Alexander Archi- 

 pelago. Their color varies greatly, rang- 

 ing from dark seal brown to buffy brown, 

 but although the ends of the hairs are 

 often paler than the bases, the silver- 

 tipped effect of the grizzlies is wanting. 



serve bear skulls and send them to some large 

 museum, preferably to the U. S. Biological 

 Survey at Washington, which has, deposited in 

 the U. S. National Museum, the finest collec- 

 tion of lar^e bear skulls in the world. 



