The grizzly needs protection at once, needs your active interest now. He is making his last stand and is surrounded by relentless foes. Protection only will save him and enable him to perpetuate himself. Without the grizzly the wilds would be dull, the cañon and the crag would lose their eloquent appeal. This wild uncrowned king has won his place in nature which no other animal can fill. We need the grizzly bear—the King of the Wilderness World.
With a closed season everywhere in the United States for a few years, the bears would increase in numbers and in due time areas now depopulated would be again peopled by them. Among the grizzlies there are always adventurers who wander far away looking for new scenes. These exploring grizzlies, as numbers increased, might redistribute themselves. Grizzlies in western Oregon might wander southward and even restock the four National Parks of California, where there is now not a grizzly. But this would require a cessation of the shooting of grizzlies for a number of years.
The population might be more quickly affected by restocking. A few grizzlies could be trapped in Yellowstone and set free in these other National Parks. The problem of restocking unoccupied areas would not be difficult if there could be for a few years a general closed season. In restocking these areas the zoos could not help. So far grizzlies have not been successfully bred in confinement.
The grizzly is an educational factor of enormous potential value. An acquaintance with him will give a lively interest in the whole world of nature, in both natural history and the natural resources of the earth. A knowledge of these will increase the enjoyment and the usefulness of every one.
In learning natural history the grizzly might well be the first life studied. Interest in him could be used to arouse interest in all life. In the very beginnings of interest in any living thing there is a desire for information concerning its food. Soil, directly or indirectly, produces the entire food-supply of the earth. Thus the trail of the grizzly bear would lead one to the wonderful story of soil-creation and the strange, almost enchanting powers it has over our strange existence.
For the young, and perhaps for the older, the grizzly has qualities which should make him the supreme mental stimulus of the great outdoors. A better acquaintance with him will be beneficial of itself, and an interest in him would inevitably extend to his wild neighbors and to the whole wide world of beauty and grandeur wherein he lives his adventurous life.
The eagle, our emblematic bird, has prowess; he soars, he dares the storm, and he explores the cloud scenery of the sky. He makes an appeal to the interest of a few, but the bear stirs the minds and the hearts of many. In most respects the grizzly would rival the eagle for an emblematic animal and would excel all animals in arousing a nature interest around the world.
Perpetuate the grizzly in our wild places and National Parks, and this will fill all wild scenes again with their appealing primeval spell—the master touch which stirs the imagination. An educator has called the imagination “the supreme intellectual faculty”; it is creative, original, refreshing. The imagination will be alive so long as the grizzly lives.
In art alone the grizzly is a subject worthy of the sculptor. He will help quicken and develop the creative imagination of any one who knows him—the grizzly of heroic art.
The grizzly probably heads the animal list in brain-power. He is still developing. He appreciates play and he has marked individuality. He is the greatest animal that is without a voice. Stories of “this animal that walks like man” ever appeal; he is the most impressive animal on the continent. He is the dominant and the most distinguished animal of the world.