Bear Anatomy

[brotherbear]

The Grizzly Bear - The Narrative of a Hunter-Naturalist by William H. Wright - published in 1909.
This book is dedicated with the respect, admiration, and affection of the author to the noblest wild animal of North America, the grizzly bear.
These little animals hibernate, as do the grizzlies, but they turn in earlier; and in a region where they are found the bears take great delight in unearthing them, and sometimes will dig out carloads of earth and rocks to secure a small feast of the little fellows. This is the last food the grizzly obtains before he goes into his long winter sleep.
The claws of the grizzly are well adapted for this peculiar sort of work; yet, long and strong as they are, so much of it does he have to do that, by the time he is ready to go into winter quarters, they are worn down to the quick, and not much, if any, longer than those of the black bear. After his long winter's sleep, however, when he emerges from his den in the spring, he is once more armed with strong curved claws, from four to six inches long. In those parts of the country where he does not have to hustle so hard for roots and ground squirrels - for instance, in some parts of Wyoming, central Idaho, and Montana - the grizzly does not wear his claws down so close. Yet he seems, on the whole, to attain a larger growth where he has to work most. Reply