There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
BEARS of the last frontier... Ringed seals are the mainstay of a polar bear's diet. Seals depend on ice, and so, in turn, do polar bears. In fact, the two species are so closely tied that the number of seals regulate the number of bears and vice versa like the relationship of the lynx and the snowshoe hare. It is even possible to estimate the number of seals from knowing the number of polar bears in a population.
BEARS of the last frontier... Never before have I seen an animal so at home in such a painfully cold environment. The polar bears don't just put up with the cold, they relish, crave, and seek it out. Even the adults become playful with the onset of the fall ice as they anticipate the return of the world that they know, the world they love.
BEARS of the last frontier... The polar bear's overnight success as a highly specialized bear came about through "quantum-speciation," a process that involves the rapid evolution of numerous physiological changes. For the polar bear these include an adaptation in fur color for camouflage, webbed toes to improve swimming ability, an elongated neck that facilitates hunting and life in and around water, hollow hairs to improve flotation and insulation, sandpaper-like foot pads to aid traction, and a thick layer of fat to keep the intense cold at bay. I've seen every one of these adaptations put to use, and combined they make for an incredibly well-designed animal. -In essence, during the last 150,000 years polar bears have diverged from their grizzly bear cousins under the intensive pressure from their environment to select for traits geared toward hunting seals from the ice. If ever there was a specialist, this is it. It is ironic given the highly adaptable nature of their close cousin, the grizzly, that this specialization may have sealed their fate. Their dependence on ice makes polar bears the climate change "canary in the coal mine."
The Grizzly Bear by William H. Wright ( 1909 )... I have sometimes almost thought that these bears, in a way, enjoy the grand view to be had from these heights. Not only have I found their bedrooms high up among the crags and overlooking range upon range of highest mountain, with restful, wide-spreading valleys below; but it has been no unusual experience, while hunting in these high regions, to see an old bear, after feeding for an hour or more far out of reach of my rifle, stroll deliberately out to the edge of some high cliff overlooking all creation, and sit there on his haunches like a dog, swinging his massive head slowly and dignifiedly from side to side. I have already mentioned the grizzly that we called White Jim, on Wilson's Creek in the Selkirks. This old white bear went through this performance nearly every day for three weeks. ....( in my own words )... I have read of this from other sources, that perhaps the grizzly has intelligence enough to appreciate the beauty of the scenery.
The Grizzly Bear... His Fierceness... We are now arrived at a division of our subject where we are to meet what, at first sight, appears to be a tangle of contradictory evidence, and it behooves us to walk slowly, to preserve an open mind, and to keep our eyes carefully attentive to the signs of the trail. On the one hand, we shall find the sincere convictions and repeated statements of early writers, and a century of unquestioned belief on the part of the public. On the other, we shall find the calmer judgments of trained observers, and the overwhelming weight of contemporaneous experience. Were our fathers wrong about the nature of the grizzly? Or has the animal radically changed in a hundred years? Personally, I believe that we have to answer "Yes" to both questions; but I am convinced that the amount of alteration in the nature of the grizzly is insignificant compared to the extent to which preconceptions of early hunters colored their judgment. Let me say, to begin with, that twenty-five years of intercourse with these beasts has taught me to regard them with the most profound respect. I would no more provoke one, unarmed, or rashly venture upon any action that my experience has taught me they regard as calling for self-defence, than I would commit suicide. That they will not fight when they think they have to, no sane man would maintain. That, when they do fight, they are not the most formidable and doughty of antagonists, I have never heard hinted. But that they habitually seek trouble when they can avoid it, or that they ever did, I do not believe. Nor, in the authentic records upon which this popular belief is largely founded, and in which it was first put into words, can we find any facts calculated to uphold it.
03-12-2016, 08:35 PM( This post was last modified: 03-12-2016, 08:48 PM by brotherbear )
The Grizzly Bear... And that the early explorers accepted the Indian verdict and thought it upheld by their own experiences is no less credible. For the grizzly bear, pursued into his fastness and attacked with bows and arrors, would be terrible indeed. And hostilely faced by men armed with the muzzle-loading smooth-bores of small calibre and still smaller penetration, he would be an antagonist but slightly less formidable. These things being so, it is scarcely to be wondered at that our predecessors overlooked two salient features of ther experiences: first, that they were themselves invariably the attacking party; and second, that, even so, for every bear that stayed to fight them, there were one or more that ran away.
To sum up, then, it seems to be beyond doubt that a century's contact with men armed with rifles has rendered the grizzly bear a more wary and cautious animal. It would indeed be strange if this were not so, for the grizzly is quick to learn and has had innumerable opportunities of learning; and there have been[/b thirty or forty generations during which his individual lessons have been moulding the instinct of the race. But that, during this time, the grizzly has changed from a bloodthirsty and ferocious tyrant to an inoffensive minder of his own business, "defensive, not aggressive," I can find nothing in the records to show, nor do I for a moment believe.
The Grizzly Bear... His Vitality... Another long-asserted and long-allowed claim made for the grizzly relates to his marvellous vitality. The literature of this subject bristles with statements in regard to his tenacity of life, his ability to disregard awful wounds, and the amount of lead with which he will get away. Lewis and Clark hardly ever mentioned killing one of these animals without dwelling on the ability of the species to take punishment; and it is made clearly evident that this, as much as any other fact, contributed to the awe with which they regarded them. "The wonderful power of life which these animals posses," says the journal, "renders them dreadful, their very track in the mud or sand... is alrming, and we had rather encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear."
The Grizzly Bear... Next, I want to note if the grizzly really had, in the early days, exceeded all the other animals of his habitat in his resistance to wounds and in his ability to withstand the shock of them, this difference between him and them should have become more marked, not less so, as these shocks became greater and these wounds more grievious. Yet, I have killed well over a hundred grizzlies without finding them any more tenacious of life than many other wild animals. They cannot stand any more punishment than the deer or the elk, and they cannot begin to stand up under the rain of bullets that an old Rocky Mountain goat will survive.
The Grizzly Bear... Finally, I would suggest that it is only human nature ( especially when badly armed ) to be more impressed with the vitality of an animal which, when wounded, takes the offensive, than with the vitality of one that, when similarly wounded, invariably runs away. Of course, the question of armament is not one to be lost sight of in reviewing the testimony of the early hunters. Their rifles were mostly smooth-bores of small calibre, not larger than the present .32, carring bullets in many cases seventy to the pound, and all of them were muzzle-loaders with no definite charges of powder. Their penetration, variable under such circumstances, was always slight as compared with the present perfected weapons, and it was impossible for them to drive a ball through the shouders of a tough old grizzly or even a young one. Armed with such a weapon it was necessary to approach very near to one's quarry, the chances of killing a large animal with one shot were small, and it took time to reload. *And the wounded grizzly was a fighter.
A Historic Grizzly by Bob Nolin... The power of a grizzly is second to none. To illustrate this, a man, whom I know, was mauled by a grizzly after lifting the gate of a culvert trap as he released the bear. In seconds the bear was out, pulled the trap off the flatbed and caused Louis, who was positioned on top, to slide down the top length of the trap onto the bear! The power, strength and speed to do all this in the short time it took Louis to hustle from the front to the back of the culvert trap is amazing! This occurrence greatly impressed two outdoor writers who were witnessing the release. One said afterwards that he had heard of the great bear's power and strength and its amazing feats, but he could not digest it all. After this episode he said there is no comparison between a black bear and a grizzly, since he was only familiar with black bears. Now he is a believer in Ursus arctos horribilis' power and strength.
A Historic Grizzly... A friend of mine was a guide in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. While packing with horses along a trail that paralleled a clff, one of the pack horses slipped and catapulted several hundred feet to the bottom. Doug climbed down to claim all the gear, and decided that the dead horse would serve as bait for a grizzly. Knowing there were grizzlies in the area, he waited high above the horse through the night with the necessary equipment and gear in anticipation of an opportunity at daylight. As the sun lifted in the eastern sky, Doug carefully studied the landscape below, only to discover the horse was missing! He was totally bewildered as to what happened to the horse! Doug climbed down the cliff and found that the horse was dragged a couple hundred yards to the Middle Fork of the Flathead River by a grizzly! Doug waded the river and continued following the drag marks, which led to a huge bear cache! After carefully surveying the sight he decided against any more grizzly hunting. The one thing that stood out in his mind was the awesome strength of an animal that was able to drag a mountain horse that distance!
A Historic Grizzly... My father-in-law and brother were on a fishing trip to the peninsula of Alaska. One night a grizzly took their fifty-five gallon drum that was sealed with garbage and bent it like a pop can! Immense strength is almost an understatement. They decided that moving on might be their best proposition.
A Historic Grizzly... When it comes to intelligence, I doubt if there is an animal alive that can outwit the great bear. It does not take a grizzly long to determine danger, thus becoming nocturnal to avoid any mishaps. This is especially true in Alaska during hunting season. Tony Russ in his "Bear Hunting in Alaska" book said that the large boars figure out what is happening right away and can only be found a few minutes after daybreak and immediately before dark. I can testify to this statement since I had firsthand experience while on the Alaskan peninsula. Nothing amazes me more than the homing instinct of the grizzlies! They can be trapped, drugged and hauled for several hundred miles while groggy, turned around, and basically blind-folded by the culvert trap in which they have limited vision, then find their way back to where it all began! It does not take them months or years, but only days, regardless of the terrain.
A Historic Grizzly... A retired B.L.M. ( Bureau of Land Management ) person I know did some trapping of grizzly bears to relocate them. They dif most of their trapping near the Canadian border and close to the North Fork of the Flathead River. He told me that one of the bears they trapped traveled almost two hundred miles back to its hangout. It took this bear only a couple of weeks to do so and over some of the worst terrain! I heard that the joke amonst the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks is that the released bear will be back to where it was trapped before the Department's personnel who trapped the bear will be home. The great bears have a sense of direction and the way God instilled this in them is just amazing!
A Historic Grizzly... When it comes to quickness the grizzlies are anything but second. I saw footage of two grizzlies standing toe to toe with their paws gouging each other and their mouths biting out chunks of flesh, all done with amazing quickness. Their motions were so fast that in slow motion it was quick! Spit and fur were flying every direction as they brawled! When they kill an animal larger than themselves, quickness is an asset in addition to strength. Just ask Louie when the grizzly bolted out of the trap, grabbing it, and pulled it down before Louie could clear himself as he ran on top of the trap! It only took seconds for all this to transpire! Speed, running over thirty-five miles per hour, is one thing, but body explosion quickness is another!
Survival Skills of Bears
