FOREST AND STREAM 
LERIERS 
(Continued from page 28) 
PARENTAL AFFECTION 
AMONG SMALL ANIMALS 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
WHETHER a great parental love is 
possible in the lower forms of 
animal life is a question that has been 
discussed since time immemorial. Most 
authorities admit that, in the larger 
wild animals and in most of the domes- 
tic animals, this is a proven fact. Many 
of us have been privileged to see ex- 
amples where mothers have defended 
their babies to the death. These cases 
are sO numerous and well known that 
it would be foolish for anyone to deny 
them. But most of us think of this 
self-sacrificing love as belonging only 
to the larger and more courageous ani- 
mals. r 
It requires no great stretch of the 
imagination to see an old she bear as 
a protector of her young, but we do 
not have the same feeling about the 
smaller, more timid, creatures. It is 
hard to imagine a frightened rabbit 
or squirrel or mouse as anything but 
what they are. They simply do not fit 
the heroic réle at all. But it was the 
writer’s privilege last year to witness 
a struggle that proved beyond a sha- 
dow of doubt that even the smallest of 
God’s creatures can rise to as great 
heights of courage as ever actuated a 
smiling soldier on the field of battle. 
Perhaps the most consistent son of 
Ishmael is the snake. Truly his hand is 
“against every man’s, and every man’s 
against him.” There is a repulsive 
quality in the instinctive fear almost 
every living thing holds for a snake 
which makes it. doubly terrifying. 
We have all seen grown men and 
women who would run at the sight of 
a harmless little gartersnake; yet I 
saw a little, terrified ground - squirrel 
mother fight and whip a seven - foot 
bull-snake in defense of her baby. 
There is no more deadly foe to the 
ground squirrel than the bull, or gopher 
snake. They live on the tiny animals, 
devouring them in their very nests. 
There is no escape from them. They 
crawl from hole to hole, often spending 
months in one small locality, depopu- 
lating whole colonies of squirrels. 
While searching for some lost cattle 
last summer my attention was drawn 
to a comotion that was going on in a 
crack, or fissure, that split the face of 
a small cliff some distance from the 
trail. After some moments, I decided 
that it was a snake, but it was plain 
that he was not acting naturally. 
Page 31 
Something was wrong. I decided to 
investigate. Riding close, I watched 
the most peculiar struggle it has ever 
been my privilege to see. 
The fissure runs horizontally across 
the face of the cliff at a height of about 
eight feet. It is about four inches wide 
and reaches far into the mountain. 
Wedged into this small space was 
the largest bull-snake I have ever seen. 
He was fully seven feet long and he 
had a little half-grown ground squirrel 
held firmly by a front leg. It was soon 
apparent that he was in difficulty. Be- 
ing of the “constrictor” variety, he was 
trying to get at the squirrel to squeeze 
it to death, but the crack was so nar- 
row and he was so large, and there 
were so many rocks in his way that he 
was having an exceedingly hard time 
of it. At last, however, he managed 
‘to throw a coil over the squirrel, but 
he was only able to squeeze enough to 
make the little fellow squeal. 
At the sound of that frightened cry 
there was a scurrying far back in the 
rock and out burst a veritable ball of 
fury. It was quite evidently the young- 
ster’s mother, for, although pop-eyed 
with fear and trembling all over, there 
was not the slightest hesitation. Rush- 
ing in she sank her sharp teeth in the 
snake’s tail and sat back with all of 
her small weight. She had the ferocity 
of a bulldog as she worried and shook 
the first part of the snake she had 
been able to reach. So effective was 
the attack that after squirming with 
pain for a few moments the snake was 
forced to uncoil from its victim. At 
once the mother darted back into the 
dark reeesses of the fissure. But the 
snake still held the baby squirrel. As 
soon as the mother let go he again 
started to get into a position to kill. 
But again the cry of pain brought the 
mother to her baby’s defense. 
For fully half an hour this appar- 
ently unequal struggle lasted. Every 
two or three minutes the same thing 
would be repeated. At last, grown 
desperate with the long battle, the lit- 
tle mother sank her teeth so deep and 
hung on so long and bit so hard that 
the snake let go of the baby to catch 
the mother, and they both got away. 
Ordinarily I am no friend of ground 
squirrels. I believe that two or three 
bull-snakes on a place make better crop 
insurance than you can buy, but in this 
case my sympathies were entirely with 
the brave little mother. No human 
mother could have done more to save 
her baby. 
W. ALLEN WRIGHT, 
Los Angeles, Cal. 
HUNTER GOES AFTER BEAR 
WITH GUN, DOGS AND 
CAMERA 
ONE of the few grizzly bears ever 
killed in the State of Washington 
was shot late this summer by Govern- 
ment Hunter P. C. Peterson after he 
had trailed the animal several days in 
the Okanogan National Forest. The 
bear weighed about 1,000 pounds, and 
stockmen said he killed livestock not 
only for food but for recreation. It 
was reported that during the summer 
this ranch raider had killed 35 head of 
cattle and 150 sheep and had done 
damage estimated at $3,000. 
Peterson, who was one of the first 
hunters to be employed by the Govern- 
ment when President Roosevelt urged 
the hunting of predatory animals in 
the national forests, is a man of wide 
experience in hunting all sorts of 
stock-killing animals in the West, as 
well as big game in Africa, northerh 
China, Canada and Alaska. In hunt- 
ing bears h uses dogs trained for the 
chase. 
The dogs trailed this last grizzly 
from 7 o’clock in the morning until 2 
in the afternoon, when they caught up 
with him in a clump of bushes on Hol- 
man Creek. When the hunter ap- 
proached, the bear charged, but the 
dogs drew him off, permitting a shot 
which broke his back. Two more shots 
through the neck finished him. The 
skin and skull were sent to the Smith- 
’ gsonian Institution to be mounted for 
exhibition in the National Museum. 
Hunter Peterson usually carries a 
camera, with which he has taken many 
pictures of bears for the assistance of 
those who mount specimens. He has 
taken many photographs which show 
the various proportions and curva- 
ture, particularly of the head. 
COYOTES MENACE IN 
MICHIGAN 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
WE have written to our governer 
and his department of conserva- 
tion reporting the prevalence of coyotes 
in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 
and more especially in the northwest- 
ern section of Luce County, and have 
urgently requested that steps be taken 
to rid that section of these predatory 
animals, now, before they kill off all 
the remaining wild life of what was 
once one of the best deer and grouse 
countries in America. 
We are writing your magazine to en- 
deavor to enlist your cooperation in 
bringing pressure to bear upon the 
Michigan State Public Conservation 
Department to take immediate steps 
to check the spread of coyotes. We 
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