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Show i 'V 4. K J , jV '" ' - 'P ! ! t - ; j GRIZZLE BEAR 1953 National Wildlife Federation Outside the areas in which they are deliberately protected it is doubtful if anyone these days can get much experience from a free, wild Grizzly Bear inside the limits of the United States. True, they may be seen in our National Parks and in our zoos but this is a far cry from the days when Grizzlies were more or less the dominating animal in much of the western half of the United States and the western west-ern third of Canada. On the whole, this is probably an improvement but it seems unfortunalte that somehow a more mutually satisfactory satis-factory arrangement could not have been worked out. Human nature na-ture and bear nature being what they were, it was hard to reach a natural reconciliation and as is usual the bear paid the price. Many- of us have had plenty of opportunities to see free Grizzlies in our National Parks, particularly particular-ly at the points where they are fed for the entertainment of visiting visit-ing tourists. Those of us fortunate to have visited these parks before son. The 2 to 4 year are born 236 days after the breeding takes place and each weighs about iy2 pounds and has a length of about 8 inches. At 3 months of age, the young Grizzly weighs about 12 pounds. At 3 years, it rearhes breeding age and usually by 25 years it has completed its normal life span. The food of Grizzlies includes not only larger animals like deer, cattle and horses, but sheep, snakes, birds and even ants. They may also eat fruits and oher plant foods when necessary. the present enormous numbers went to them had more intimate and sometimes more startling experiences ex-periences with them. To probably many persons, however, a Grizzly Bear is an enormous animal interested in-terested primarily in chasing and killing hunters or live stock. To those who have read Sdton's story of Wab, the animal is one to be admired and pitied. Probably none of these accounts gve us the true story of the animal. An adult male Grizzly Bear may be over 8 feet long and stand 4 feet high at the shoulder, which is higher than one finds in the related re-lated Black Bear. Grizzly males may attain a weight of 1,150 lbs. The females are smaller in size and weight than their mates. Both sexes are colored a yellowish 1 brown with a g'ray or "grizzly" wash. The Alaskan Brown Bear is ; larger than the typical grizzly, i reaching a weight of over 1600 pounds and is probably the largest carnivorous mammal on earth. I There is much difference of opin--; ion as to the proper classification ! of the Grizzly Bear group. Some j give the Alaskan Brown Bear rank ! as a subspecies, while others re- 1 cognize it as a . distinct species. ; Some 86 forms have been recognized recog-nized as being dstinct by the soo-logsts. soo-logsts. Grizzly bears- mate for the sea- |