Natural History: Mammalia/Ursidæ

by Philip Henry Gosse

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Family I. Ursidæ.

(Bears.)

In the slowness and nocturnal habits of the Bears, we recognise their affinity to the last order; and no less in the fact that most of the species which inhabit cold and temperate climates, pass the winter in a state of torpid insensibility. They lay the whole sole of the foot on the ground in walking, which gives them a heavy shuffling gait, but admits of the body being reared up with facility, and sustained in an erect attitude. In this posture the fore paws are frequently used in defence, to strike, or to hug an assailant to death by muscular pressure. The whole sole is naked. The feet have five toes each, armed with strong, curved, somewhat obtuse claws, formed for digging: the grinding teeth are more or less tuberculated, and the food is either animal or vegetable; the form is generally robust. The genera inhabit both continents.

Genus Ursus. (Linn.)

Linnæus was acquainted with but one species of Bear, but above a dozen have now received specific names, though some of these may be found to be varieties. The dentition of the genus is thus expressed:—inc. 6/6; can. 1—1/1—1; mol. 6—6/7—7 =42. The canines are strong, conical, and incurved; the molars have flattened crowns, surmounted with tubercles fitted for bruising vegetables, rather than for cutting flesh. The limited power which is possessed of performing the latter, lies in the incisors. Their claws, though large, strong, and sufficiently formidable, are yet suited better for digging, or for climbing trees, than for tearing prey. The tail is so short as to be for the most part hidden in the long shaggy coarse hair with which the body is clothed. They are animals of large size, of robust, and even clumsy form, and of sluggish habits. With the exception of two or three species, as the Grizzly Bear (U. ferox, Lewis) of the Rocky Mountains, the Polar Bear (U. maritimus, Erxl.) and perhaps the Bear of Lebanon (U. Syriacus, Ehrenb.), the species are little disposed, if unmolested, to attack a man. Of the great strength and ferocity of the first two of these, however, many accounts have been narrated.

The Bears are almost confined to the northern hemisphere, but some are peculiar to India, and one is found beneath the equator, in the great island of Borneo.

The Brown Bear (U. arctos, Linn.) is familiar to nearly every one in this country, of which in former ages it was a native. ‘Throughout the northern parts of continental Europe, and in the mountain forests of the central and southern districts, it is still very numerous. It extends also into the dreary regions of Asiatic Russia. Unsocial and solitary, haunting the most gloomy and secluded forests, he associates with his mate only for a very brief period, and on the approach of winter, retires into some cave, or hollow beneath the roots of a prostrate tree. The snows soon envelop him on all sides, and form a protection against the inclemency of the external cold, while his breath keeps open an orifice sufficiently large to supply him with freshair. He is always very fat at the time of his retirement; and itis by the slow absorption of this accumulated nutriment, that he is supposed to supply the languid requirements of nature, through his long lethargy. On the other hand, the American Bears are stated, on the authority of Dr. Richardson, to leave their winter retreats as fat as they retired, but to become quite lean in the first few days of resumed activity.

The female brings forth her cubs, usually two in number, in her winter concealment: they are born blind, and do not open their eyes for thirty days. A Bear's cub is not more "shapeless" than the young of other animals.

The strength of the Bear is prodigious. Mr. Nilsson states that one has been seen in Sweden, carrying a dead horse in his fore paws, as he marched on his hind feet, along the trunk of a fallen tree that crossed a river. Instances have been known of Bears climbing on the roofs of cow-houses, and having torn open the roof to gain admittance, killing the cattle, which they then managed to drag through the hole in the low roof, and carry away. Notwithstanding his great weight, he climbs trees with ease; and the feats of captive individuals, in this way, constitute not the least amusing exhibitions afforded to the visitors of our modern zoological gardens.

The flesh of the Bear is eaten; the tongues, paws, and hams, are even esteemed delicacies; the fat is in request with the perfumers; and the skin with the hair on, is valued as a carriage-covering in winter travelling, especially in northern countries. The Brown Bear sometimes exceeds seven hundred pounds in weight.