36 



OEDEKS OF MAMMALS— FLESH-EATEES 



In 1874, when Mr. Henry W. Elliott and Lieu- 

 tenant Maynard visited St. Matthew Island, a 

 lonely bit of treeless land in the northern portion 

 of Bering Sea, they found upon it between 250 

 and 300 Polar Bears ! The animals were basking 

 in the warm sunshine, shedding their winter 

 coats, and growing fat on the roots of the plants 

 and mosses that grew there. On one occasion 

 twenty bears were in sight simultaneously. The 

 bears literally overran the island, grazing and 



E. R. Sanborn, Photo, N. Y. Zoological Park. 

 POLAR BEAR. 



rooting about like hogs on a common. They 

 showed no disposition to fight, but always ran 

 when approached. 



The Polar Bear is a tall animal, with long legs, 

 flat sides, and paws that are very wide and flat. 

 The largest specimen in the New York Zoological 

 Park is 50-? inches in height, 7 feet 2 inches in 

 length, and weighs about 800 pounds. When 

 standing erect on his hind legs, the end of his 

 nose is 8 feet 8 inches from the ground. If prop- 

 erly and comfortably caged, and provided with 

 a swimming pool five feet deep, Polar Bears in the 

 temperate zone do not suffer from the heat of 

 summer, and can endure hot weather fully as 

 well as our black bears. Of course they require 

 shade in summer; but it is not necessary to put 

 ice in their pool to cool the water. 



The power of this active, warm-blooded animal 

 to resist cold is one of the wonders of Nature. 

 With the temperature many degrees below zero, 

 the Polar Bear cheerfully leaps into the Arctic 

 Ocean, amid the broken ice, and swims for hours. 



Of all bears, it is the best swimmer, and it dives 

 with great ease. Thanks to the limitations im- 

 posed by the Frost King on hunting in the arctic 

 regions, it is not very probable that the Polar 

 Bear ever will be exterminated by man. 



The Big Brown Bears. 



In 1896 the specimens collected by the United 

 States Biological Survey, at Washington, re- 

 vealed to Dr. C. Hart Merriam the presence in 

 Alaska of two or three species and subspecies 

 of huge brown bears, totally different in char- 

 acter from all the American bears previously 

 known. These bears range from Sitka around 

 to the extremity of the Alaskan Peninsula, 

 Kadiak Island, and inland for unknown dis- 

 tances. They are marked by their light brown 

 color, high shoulders, massive heads of great 

 breadth, short, thick claws, and shaggy pelage. 

 In their high shoulders, they resemble the griz- 

 zly bear, but otherwise differ from them in many 

 ways. Of these bears, Dr. Merriam has pub- 

 lished preliminary descriptions of four new spe- 

 cies and one subspecies, but additional collec- 

 tions and information may possibly result in the 

 consolidation of some of these. 



It is sufficient for our purpose to-set forth only 

 the species which seems most sharply defined, 

 and which may be considered representative of 

 the whole group. 



The Kodiak Bear, 1 of Kodiak Island, and 

 probably also of the Alaskan Peninsula and the 

 mainland for some distance eastward, is not only 

 the largest of all living bears, but also the largest 

 carnivorous animal in the world. Several skins 

 of immense size, and skulls 19 inches in length, 

 have been collected. The largest specimen ever 

 killed and measured by a naturalist was a female 

 killed at Chinitna Bay, by Mr. James H. Kid- 

 der, which had a shoulder height of 51 inches. 



A very large flat skin measured at Kodiak by 

 Mr. J. A. Loring, was 9£ feet long by 10i feet 

 wide across the fore legs. 



Immediately after shedding, the new coat of 

 the Kodiak Bear is dark-brown, like that of a 

 grizzly, but it soon changes to a beautiful golden- 

 brown tint. In March and April, the old coat 

 is of a golden-yellow color, and really very beauti- 

 ful. The full coat is long, thick and shaggy, and 



1 Ur'sus mid' 'den-dor f-fi. 



