Throughout history -- indeed, beginning with our \Pprehistoric\p \Pancestors\p -- man has been mystified, fascinated, amused, and frequently terrified by bears. There is good reason for each of those reactions.
Bears exemplify the mysteries of the wilderness. At times they move with ghostly silence and hide so well that their presence goes undetected by human intruders in their domain. When angered (or occasionally when playful) they may crash through brush and snap small trees, and their echoing roars, coughs, grunts, and mouth-popping can sound supernatural as well as terrifying.
Their life cycle is fascinating in many ways. A newborn black bear cub, for example, is about the size of a squirrel without a tail, but at maturity it will have gained at least five hundred times its birth weight. A mother grizzly or polar bear may weigh 750 times as much as one of its newborn cubs -- which probably weighs less than 1.5 pounds (.68 kilograms). To appreciate the disparity, contrast that with an average human mother who weighs only fifteen to twenty times as much as her infant.
All the same, a mother bear may occasionally look like a fat, hairy parody of the human mother, for a sow bear sometimes nurses a cub or two while lying on her back or sitting on her haunches with her back against a tree and the young on her lap. And at various times she is likely to behave toward her toddlers as lovingly -- or as irritably -- as a human mother. In a bear's antics, we see ourselves transformed, like victims of a witch's spell in a fairy tail, and the \Panthropomorphic\p impression amuses us. This, perhaps, is why we also find amusement in the performing bears at circuses, ponderously dancing, riding a tricycle, balancing on a slack rope or a ball, hugging and "kissing" the trainer.
\BDescription:\b Bears are fascinating creatures.
\BPhoto:\b Walt Enders - Ellis Nature Photography
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Lovable and amusing though bears may be, they are unpredictable and very dangerous -- every living bear beyond the age of a year or so. There are renowned animal trainers who play roughly, confidently, fearlessly with enormous, exceedingly powerful bears they have raised lovingly from infancy. An adult bear of almost any species can crush a trainer's skull with one bite or lacerate his flesh to the bone with one slap.
A trainer's "pet" bear, however well trained, essentially remains forever wild, and the trainer avoids danger only because he knows "his" bear so well and is so expert in every aspect of handling the animal. A trained bear may be amusing, but to many it is also a terribly saddening sight, a creature out of its element, captive, made to perform \Pdemeaning\p tricks instead of living as it was born to live. To many, it is a victim of human witches more heartless than those in fairy tales, who have turned it into something less noble and magnificent than its true identify.
