BEAR CHARACTERISTICS 
Bears are rather solitary, the males wandering about alone, 
the females accompanied by cubs often as big as themselves. 
The young, two as a rule, are born in midwinter in the family 
den, which may be a rocky cave or the hollow of an old tree, 
the center of a dense thicket or simply a bed beneath the snow. 
The cubs at birth are surprisingly small —not larger than 
rabbits — and are naked, blind, and very slow to develop; 
hence the mother is extremely solicitous about them, and heed- 
lessly brave in their defense. Most of the instances of un- 
provoked attacks by bears have been cases of mothers who 
saw or fancied their babies in danger. 
Although courageous and able to overcome the greatest 
rivals or foes, the weight and indolence of bears forbid their 
chasing the large grazers, while the agile small 
ones mostly keep out of their way; hence the flesh 
they get is mainly that of animals too young to escape, or such 
as chance throws into their grasp. When lurking near settle- 
ments, they are likely to make forays upon the farms, and to 
carry off colts, calves, lambs, or pigs, especially the last, — and 
a bear climbing a rickety rail fence or stalking away through 
the moonlight with a squealing porker under his arm is a sight 
to see. A bear is a comical creature anyway, and never more so 
than when it feels good-natured and is amusing itself in cum- 
brous play. It can, when in a hurry, gallop as fast as a pony, 
but is too heavy to keep up the gait long, and usually its pace 
is a fast shuffling walk, leaving very manlike tracks. In the 
wilderness it tears open the houses of the beaver, muskrat, 
pack rat, and other hibernacula, and devours the tenants unless 
they get away. Thus Osgood * describes how an Alaskan 
bear pursues the ground squirrels there in spring: — 
Character. 
“Sometimes he slips along the hillside and tries to catch the squirrel 
by a sudden pounce, but this usually fails. When the squirrel dodges into 
its near-by burrow new tactics are adopted. The bear immediately begins 
to dig, throwing out big turfs and clods at each stroke, using the left hand 
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