Big Game Animals of the YcUoivstonc - 417 



rangy forms showing absolute fearlessness and power in every 

 movement as they approach, is the grandest sight in Yellowstone 

 Park. 



The grizzly is the undisputed master of the animal world in which 

 he lives. Then why does he wait until sundown to make his appear- 

 ance at the dump where none may dispute his possession? He is 

 now by instinct nocturnal, and a century-long education through 

 persecution by hunters and other armed men, has made him ex- 

 tremely cautious. The grizzly's bump of caution has grown so 

 large that his awesome glory has almost departed. In the old days 

 he feared no man or beast, and stalked at will over our western 

 plains unmoved by the sight of any enemy. His brain, however, 

 has received many shocks since the Wild West was settled, and 

 today he is as cautious and wary as he once was bold. For fifty 

 years he has lived under more or less complete protection within 

 Yellowstone Park, but his intelligence is not keen enough to grasp 

 the fact that here he is safe from the attacks of men, and that the 

 Park is his whenever he chooses to take possession. Unhappily, his 

 experience whenever he passes the boundary quickly destroys any 

 confidence he may have gained. He remains a hungry monarch in 

 a land of plenty. All day he lies dozing in his lair or ranges the 

 solitudes of the lodgepole pine forests of the Park plateau (fig. 90), 

 while the black and brown bears are feeding merrily on fresh- 

 dumped garbage. At sunset he stalks boldly forth into the open and 

 gallops to the dump where, following the daily visits of the black 

 bears, perhaps only a few bones and empty tins await him. What 

 the grizzly needs is more confidence in man while within the Park 

 sanctuary, and recognition of the fact that man is no longer an 

 enemy but a friend. How can we educate this great crafty American 

 mammal to a realization of his social possibilities? Food has not 

 proved to be the magic lure for him that it is for most animals, the 

 spur that impresses the memory, — he has not yet learned the dinner 

 hour. Can we awake him to a diurnal diet and to the "early bird 

 catches the worm" sort of philosophy? Were he protected outside 

 as well as inside the Park, this might be possible. 



Today there are less than fifty grizzly bears in Yellowstone Park. 

 The former Park Naturalist, Mr. M. P. Skinner, who is highly expert 

 in census field work, puts the number at forty, which is probably 

 a conservative estimate. Grizzly bears are today no more abundant 

 than they were fifty years ago when the Park was established ; they 

 are perhaps less numerous. They apparently wander out of the 

 Park and are killed at a greater rate than they breed. These are 



