4i8 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



the sad facts ! How can we safeguard the grizzHes now hving inside 

 the -Park under protection,, so that an increase in numbers will be 

 assured in their only stronghold now left in the United States? 

 Placing food on. the dumps after sunset would be one solution, as 

 it would give - the -grizzly a fair share of the food -that should be 

 his, -and it w^ould also give him low down in the pit of his stomach 

 a conviction that the Park is his home. The greatest aid in procur- 

 ing a -Stay-at-home grizzty w-ould be spring feeding by the Park 

 •Service from about April i^ when the bears emerge from hiberna- 

 tion, to June 20, the opening date of the hotels and camps. The 

 spring, is the saddest time of the year for the bears, who emerge 

 from their hibernation gaunt with hunger and with a determination 

 to forage to the ends of the earth if necessar}- in order to procure 

 food. If the Park Service would expend a few dollars in bread 

 for them it would doubtless be rewarded by a stay-at-home and more 

 sociable and visible type of grizzly bear. 



Stopping the shooting of grizzlies outside the Park is difficult, 

 owing to the sentiment against bears and against game protection 

 in the Rocky [Mountain States, and owing more, perhaps, to the 

 value of the hides and the sport to be found in shooting big game. 

 Xevertheless, laws should be passed and enforced in all the states 

 bordering on the Yellowstone Park prohibiting the shooting and 

 trapping of these animals. Only such individuals as are proved to 

 be cattle killers should be destroyed, and then only by special orders 

 from the game warden, and by members of his own staff, not by 

 the stockmen or others who may report the presence of marauding 

 grizzlies. It is only occasionally that grizzlies become cattle killers, 

 and such individuals should of course be prevented from doing 

 damage. The indiscriminate slaughter of bears is stupid and brutal. 

 At Canyon Hotel dump you may often see horses and grizzlies in 

 the closest proximity to one another. The horses know that thev 

 are safe, or they would not approach a grizzly within fifty feet 

 or less. 



The grizzl}- bear has suffered more than any other large game 

 animal of the United States. His natural range is now practically 

 reduced to one small spot, the Yellowstone Park. He deserves our 

 protection on account of his great scientific and educational interest. 

 as w-ell as because he is a thrilling feature of the original wilderness, 

 and he should therefore be given at leas: as much consideration and 

 protection as the other game animals. The intense popularity of 

 the wild bears in the Yellowstone is undoubted proof of the high 

 regard in which they are held by our people generalh'. 



