THE GIANT BROWN BEARS OF ALASKA 



J. A. LORING. 



Probably no other group of animals cap 

 so thoroughly adapt themselves to the cli- 

 mate and food conditions of the country in 

 which they live, as the bears of North 



COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



A TYPICAL KADIAK. 

 Male. Three years old. Weight about 800 pounds. 



America. While they are provided with the 

 teeth and organism of carnivorous ani- 

 mals, nature has also endowed them with a 

 system and an appetite which soon accli- 

 matizes them to any part of the continent, 



from the ice floes of the North to the ever- 

 glades of the South. It matters not wheth- 

 er they have been accustomed to pineapples 

 and turtle eggs in Florida; wild honey and 

 acorns in Pennsylvania; insects, roots, ber- 

 ries and offal in the Rocky mountains ; sal- 

 mon and grass in Alaska, or seal meat in 

 the Arctic ; in captivity they accept an ar- 

 tificial diet as variable. I have even known 

 a bear to eat a greasy dish rag that once 

 did duty about camp ; and who has not 

 heard miners in the West tell of the amuse- 

 ment they have had getting poor Bruin 

 drunk. 



The Northland affords bears the oppor- 

 tunity to show the carnivorous habits for 

 which they seem best adapted, while in 

 reality they are omniverous. Were it 

 not for the seals and unlimited supply of 

 fish, the bears living along the coast would 

 be obliged to adopt more of a vegetarian 

 diet, as do their kin inhabiting localities 

 where salmon are not found. 



In Southern countries where vegetation 

 and animal life are always awake and bears 

 are able to secure food throughout the 

 year, they do not hibernate. In the North 

 their lives are necessarily divided into 2 

 seasons ; a season of activity, and a season 

 of sleep or hibernation. 



The largest of living carnivorous ani- 

 mals, the giant of all bears, is the Kadiak 

 bear of Alaska. For some unaccountable 

 reason the largest specimens are found on 

 the islands of Kadiak and Afognak, at the 

 mouth of Cook inlet. So few Kadiak 

 bears have been killed by white hunters, 

 that at present there is no authentic record 

 of the weight of a large representative of 

 this huge species, although stories are cur- 

 rent of individuals supposed to weigh 2,200 

 to 2,700 pounds. It is safe to say, how- 

 ever, a Kadiak bear that would tip the 

 scales at 1,500 pounds would be close to 

 the limit. It is impossible to obtain a cor- 

 rect idea of the size of the animal when 

 alive by measuring dried skins, for dur- 

 ing the process of curing, the natives lace 

 the hides to frames, or stake them to the 

 ground, thereby stretching the skins out of 

 proportion. The largest skin in posses- 

 sion of the Alaska Commercial Company 

 at Kadiak, in July, 1901, measured g]/ 2 feet 

 from nose to tail and io l / 2 feet across the 

 outstretched front paws. 



Formerly these bears were abundant on 

 the island from which they take their name, 

 but at present it is doubtful if the yearly 

 number killed by both native and white 

 hunters will average 35. In fact, their num- 



91 



