The Life Of Ursus Middendorfii
—by Charles Madsen
King Kodiak, the largest and
most ferocious carnivorous an
imal on earth, is too well known
to sportsmen the world over to
need much of an introduction as
to his size, weigiit and ferocity,
but of the thousands of fireside
tales that have been told about
this “most prized of A'askan
troph es,” none of them has ever
dealt with the most interesting
facts as to how, when and where
from did this monster originally
•same, and why does he grow to
auch tremendous size on this
comparatively small island off
the Alaskan coast.
Like all scientific research
work, fragments of evidence
«must be put together piece by
.piece before an honest opinion
•may be passed, and now, accord
ing to all available evidence,
scientifically, geologically and
otherwise, we find that this fam
ous bear is the descendant of the
•extinct, legendary bear of Russia
And Siberia. Further evidence
also reveals that the fabulous
creature is far from being extinct
but is propagating at a rapid
pace and is startling evidence
of one instance in which Nature
failed in executing the death
•sentence of a doomed species.
n appears tnat during the re
ceding period of the great Polar
Ice Cap Nature turned upon the
■Siberian bear, great and rugged
-as he was and admirably fitted
*£o endure the rigors of the frozen
•domain he ruled. Possibly sensing
Kthe turn of the tide, the bear be
•vame restless and gradually wan
dered from his native region,
^pushing south and east. The
Heriag Sea and Straits had not
yet appeared, and he crossed
'their future location safely, roam
hag on and on over solid ice and
experiencing a strange delight
in the slight warmth he felt as
"he browsed his way southward.
■iPinfllly, some of the bears, pos
sibly only one pair, because they
are not herding animals, reached
a veritable oasis in the ice, an
Aloine wilderness, fresh, young,
green and stocked with such an
Another Brown Skin Bites The Dust
--- r *'■
>«**»»* -:------ --
Charlie Madsen was guide for Harold McCracken, of New York
when he bagged the above out-sized model which measured nearly
12 feet and weighed approximately 1900 pounds. The victim is
now stuffed and reposes in the Museum of Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio.
abundance of wild life, shrubs
and berries that Mr. Bear, late
of Siberia and points north, gave
a sigh of relief. Those bears that
remained behind lost their battle
with the ice, but those that
reached the oasis flourished and
multiplied. When the ice cap re
ceded they could not go back to
the old haunts because their
new home had become an island
-Kodiak Island.
For centuries they lived on this
island undisturbed and un
known The superabundance of
food and periodical relaxation
during hibernation helped to add
to their growth. Time went on
and Alaska was discovered by
the Russians It did not take
the early explorers long to learn,
like the bears, that Kodiak was
a veritable garden spot, warmed
by the Japanese current and fan
ned by the gentle breezes of the
Pacific, The first settlement in '
“Russian America’’ was estab- j
lished and shortly after the first
settlers had arrived the legend
ary bear of Russia was discover
ed The time came when these
magnificent animals again faced
extinction, but once again they
cheated Mother Nature. It was
not until 1896 that these great
bears were made known to the
world, by Middendorf, as the
largest and mf'st ferocious car
nivores extent. These bears, he
said, are a species which are
found nowhere else on the face
of the earth and reach the mag
nificent proportions of 13 feet in
height, when standing on their
hind feet, and attain a weight of
nearly one ton. The illustration
will give the reader a fair idea of
their size, but they really should
be sefcn alive, or the actual life
like mounted specimen to be ap
preciated.
The purpose of this article is
to give a few facts about these
great bears which may prove in
terest and instructive to all
sportsmen who read and hear so
much about them and always
have had a hankering to make
the trip to Kodiak to secure their
trophies to fill that empty space
in tke den with the Monarch of
Alaska’s big game.
In the past 20 years the name
Kodiak bear has become so pop
ular that it has been used freely
in all parts of the Territory of
Alaska when speaking about
brown bear. It did not take the
guides and outfitters long to
(continued on page 8)
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21
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