Grizzly Bear 
227 
from a steer down to a mouse or a chipmunk, often digging 
such small creatures as the latter and ground squirrels from 
their holes. Probably they do not kill very much large 
game, such as deer or elk, except it may be an occasional un- 
fortunate crippled by some hunter and unable to get away. 
Any domestic animals that may come their way are taken 
care of, and sometimes on the cattle ranges a Grizzly becomes 
very destructive, levying a heavy toll on the herds. The 
victims are killed by blows from the powerful fore paws, one 
blow often being sufficient to kill a grown steer. The bear 
usually returns to its kill for several days or nights until it is 
consumed, but some of them get too wary for that and never 
come back a second time. Often after a bear has killed a 
large animal it drags it for a considerable distance with its 
fore paws to some convenient place, where it eats its fill, and 
then often covers, or partially covers, the remainder with 
leaves or moss or anything of the sort which may be at hand. 
Bears often tear open rotten logs to get the grubs which are 
in the wood; they tear open anthills and lick up the inhabitants 
with their tongues; the fondness of bears for honey is proverb- 
ial, and a bear will take almost any chances and endure almost 
anything to get honey. In Alaska and the northwest where 
salmon run in immense numbers in the streams, the bears 
of that region live largely on fish during the season. These 
they catch by wading out into the water, and feeling with 
their paws until a fish is found and thrown out on the bank 
or pulled out w^ith the claws. 
Bears are just as indifferent in their choice of vegetable 
food as in the case of flesh when hungry; even grass may be 
eaten when they come out in the spring and food is hard to get; 
berries in season are greatly relished, and a berry patch in the 
mountains is almost sure to have a bear frequenting it; 
service berries, raspberries, and wild cherries are all eaten, 
and the acorns of the scrub oaks are also gathered in. 
