NEWS BULLETIN OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE POLAR BEARS. 



CONTENTED BEARS. 



Barring- the three Orang-Utans, there are no animals in the 

 Zoological Park which furnish more amusement than the 

 bears. From the small Grizzlies up to the huge Polar Bears, 

 they all devote their waking hours to boxing, wrestling, 

 climbing and chasing each other. Without exception, all 

 are good-tempered animals, and their antics are a source of 

 endless amusement to visitors, both old and young. Need- 

 less to say, this daily exercise — much of it quite violent — is 

 of incalculable benefit to the animals, especially to those which 

 are yet young and growing. The hope that the rocks and 

 trees in the dens, and the generous floor space, would lead 

 the bears to exercise vigorously, has been realized beyond all 

 expectations. 



As a practical illustration of the effect of a large den upon 

 an animal quite out of condition, the case of our Florida 

 Black Bear is rather interesting. A year ago this animal was 

 found in St. Augustine, where for six years it had lived in a 

 cage eight feet by five. Barring his close confinement, he had 

 been quite well cared for, and his great size (for a southern 

 black bear) made him so desirable that he was purchased. 

 He reached the Zoological Park in July, but the incomplete 

 state of the Bear Dens made it necessary to keep him two 

 more long months in his original cage. Meanwhile nearly all 

 of his hair came off, and his skin assumed a very unhealthy 

 appearance. He was dieted carefully, fed and rubbed with 

 sulphur, and in October set free in one of the Dens. 



Poor fellow ! Freedom was to him so new and strange 

 that for days he knew not what to do with it. Like the 

 liberated prisoner who kept saying " Once one is two," he 

 took up a position close to the front bars, and scarcely mov- 

 ing his hind quarters, marched his head and shoulders to 

 and fro, a thousand times a day, just as he had done for six 

 long years. When he was forced to walk about, it was seen 

 that, from long disuse, his hind legs and feet had become 

 almost paralyzed. 



To-day he is one of the handsomest bears of the eleven in 

 the dens. His coat is thick, jet-black and glossy, his skin is 

 in perfect condition, and his wrestling bouts with the stockily- 

 built animal from Rat Portage (Sir Roderick Cameron's gift) 



are both wonderful and amusing. It seems very absurd to 

 see a huge black bear, weighing nearly six hundred pounds, 

 wrestling and tumbling about like a cub six months old. He 

 has fully recovered the use of his hind legs, climbs fearlessly, 

 and in the enjoyment of freedom, fresh air, and the com- 

 panionship of his kind, he is working very hard to make up 

 six years of lost time. 



Already the eleven specimens in our collection of bears 

 cover a wide range of geographical distribution. The two 

 Polar Bears came from Nova Zembla, two of the Grizzlies 

 came from the Cook's Inlet country, Alaska, and one from the 

 mountains of Colorado. One Black Bear represents Colo- 

 rado, another Northwestern Canada, another hails from the 

 Adirondacks, and the largest of all, save the Polars, is the 

 Florida specimen mentioned above. The latest acquisition is 

 a fine young Japanese Black Bear, which reached New 

 York via Yokohama. 



Several of these animals are now making haste to shed their 

 weather-worn winter coats, and make ready for summer visit- 

 ors. None of them hibernated, though the Colorado Black 

 Bear came very near doing so. The Polar Bears slept out 

 doors all winter — in order to obtain a satisfactory amount of 

 cold air — and to-day our only anxiety in regard to our bears 

 is due to them. Owing to lack of funds, the special den for 

 these animals has not yet been constructed; and no one 

 knows when it will be. The den in which they are temporarily 

 quartered contains a bathing tank amply large for a land 

 bear, but ten times too small for a pair of marine monsters, 

 who spend half their time at play in their pool. They play 

 so much and so vigorously that they have worn half the hair 

 off their backs and hind quarters against the masonry sides 

 of their small tank. At present, their tank is filled only every 

 other day, but in a short time it must be filled every day, or 

 the animals will suffer ; and a pair of hairless Polar Bears will 

 be the result. 



" What is to be done about it? " I do not know; but if 

 some good friend would send us to-day a check for $2,500, to 

 be used in constructing a proper swimming pool for these 

 magnificent animals, to-morrow would see ten good men at 

 work on an admirable answer to this question. The ques- 

 tion is — can that good friend be found ? 



