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Show r,i 1 1 1 Chapters From Canada's Jungle Book The Bear Mascot f N A previous visit to Jas-per Jas-per Park in the Canadian ' Rockies I have always made it part of my program to drop into the warden, headquarters of the park and sandbag my old friend II. S. Dayis for a column dealing with the private lives of wild animals or birds, with which he holds the same sort of communion that exists between thoroughbreds and horse trainers. train-ers. Nature has no secrets that he does not share. All wild things are comrades com-rades with him. This time I asked for a bear story. "An old or a young bear?" "Both" "That brings to mind," he said, "the time when a football club from Hamilton turned up in the park in search of a bear mascot. "Securing fifty feet of sashweight cord they went into the brush and located a four months' cub, apparently appar-ently alone, which they lassoed and prepared to make captive. Bad business in a bear country. Before they had time to effect a huddle or arrange means for the get-away, mother bear, accompanied by two other cubs, turned up apparently from nowhere and routed the pigskin pig-skin kickers, who fled, leaving the mascot with the sashweight cord still noosed upon his neck. "Young bruin, glad of freedom, bolted for a jack pine and swarmed into the branches fifty feet aloft, the cord trailing behind. Mother, bear, bewildered by the long, flapping flap-ping cord attached to her offspring, shinned up after him and made an investigation, which developed nothing to her satisfaction. She tried to coax him down, -to rejoin brother and sister bear waiting at the bottom of the tree. Young Bruin Hangs Himself. "Stubborn at the outset, but finally allowing himself to be persuaded, the mascot, cautiously at first, began be-gan backtracking downward through the thick branches, coming com-ing presently to grief when the sash cord, entangled, yanked him from the lower limbs and tightened as he slipped into space, leaving , the cub suspended that is to say, hung. Quite so. "Mother bear, already down and waiting with the other two cubs, heard the mascot's first wild howl, suddenly silenced as the noose drew together. Above, apparently self executed, the cub, snorting intermittently, inter-mittently, writhed upward, using his paws, got a straddle of another limb, there to recover his breath. Up the bole of the jack pine the old bear again scrambled, further adding to her perplexities. She couldn't understand why her cub, making manly efforts to descend at her request, toppled from his perch and all but hung himself four times hand running. In each instance she boosted him back to safety, but could not get him free. An Indian who witnessed the preliminary confusion con-fusion following the disappearance of the football team, came in to Jasper Park and notified the game wardens of her predicament. "Mystified by what was occurring midst the branches of the gallows tree, she was not inclined to allow any one to approach the scene of action. An Aerial Rescue "Ten feet distant from the tree occupied oc-cupied by the mascot stood another pine. Whatever of rescue was to be tried must be done from there by the climbing expert, who was ready with a long pole to which had been woven a sharp hunting knife. Mother Moth-er bear resented his every attempt to reach the tree and scale it. As a last resort those present, armed with brickbats, rushed the mother bear, pelting her until she changed her position long enough for the pole lineman to get out of the danger zone and install himself in the tree adjoining the cub's quarters. "Every attempt on the part of the rescuer to cut away the sash cord entanglements was frustrated by the cub's repeated slapping at the blade tied on the pole. Great caution cau-tion was necessary to avoid wounding wound-ing the captive, violently opposed to the efforts that were being made for his preservation. "Again the old bear returned to the the tree and made a final attempt to reach her now highly inarticulate cub, still enraged in batting at tbp knife which the lineman adroitly kept out of range. Presently, in the midst of our joint maneuvers, the mascot endowed with good luck twisted himself into a knot and was rendered helpless to strike at the long-handled knife designed for his liberation. With one swift thrust forward and upward the blade severed the cord close to the club's neck, freed the tension and gave young bruin his liberty. With a howl of joy the football mascot 1 started down, slipped, landed on his mother now half way up the j jack pine, and knocked her loose, j They hit the welcome earth of Alberta Al-berta Province with great violence, the mother recovering first, only to b;gin licking her offspring." CopyriKht. WNU Service. |
