The Historic Grizzly

[brotherbear]

Continued...
The next morning, Merrifield, a good tracker, took up the bear's tracks. The men followed the bear into a dark forest littered with downed trees. As Merrifield passed by a huge pine log, he dropped to one knee. Roosevelt eased forward with rifle raised. Suddenly, the huge grizzly stood up, and Roosevelt took steady aim at the bear's head and pulled the trigger. The bear dropped in its tracks. Roosevelt estimated the grizzly's weight at over 1,000 pounds and later claimed it was the biggest grizzly bear he ever killed or saw, dead or alive.
Though Roosevelt did not specifically target the grizzly for preservation, he most assuredly included the great bear in his wish list of endangered wildlife to be spared extinction. And while it is true that he hunted the great bear, he also called the grizzly the lord of the wilderness - the one animal who, much like himself, would give as much as it got when provoked.
During those dark years for wildlife conservation from 1900 to 1960, Yellowstone and Glacier were the great bear's only sanctuaty, and without them the grizzly may well have become extinct. Roosevelt made sure that didn't happen.  Reply