The Washington herald., 1911-04-16
'7Aat dam needs repairing again. Says Enz.SeAv

do their best to foster this harmless de-
fusion by placing within the polar bears
| cage large block of ice. This is to re-
| mind the poor bear of his frozen happy
| hunting grounds Of the polar regions,
and Ii is presumed by the gullible public
that the bear is happier thereby. Far
| be il from such. The bear would be
much happier if the ice cake were imi-
| tation instead of the real, frigid article
| In other words, polar bears and other
! polar animals do not live on ice bergs
and glaciers because they like them
They have been driven to the arctic re-
! gions by other animals and by convul-
sions of nature, and live there because
! they have learned to combat the cold
and provide themselves with food from
the blue deep. They like the warmth
of the sun as well as their distant rela-
tiveS of the tropics, and adapt them
selves readily to captivity in warm eli
mates. In fact the polar bear of the
circus is really annoyed by the ice cakes
floating around in his pool or reposing
in the corner of his cage. He is sup
posed to be happy only when sitting
upon this cake of ice, but did any one
ever see him perched upon his frozen
settee?
Out at the National Zoo there is an
old polar bear who has been one of the
institutions prides and joys for about
that he has contented himself in cap
tivity in a Washington. climate would
seem to disprove the popular notion
without the authoritative assertions of
DR.. Baker. Never have the Zoo keepers
resorted to the practice of putting cakes
Of ice in the polar bears pool On the
contrary, they have discovered that the
polar bear and all his Northern brothers
are so fond of the hot sun that they have
to be protected with awnings from lying
out in it and getting sun struck.
Seek the Sunshine.
DR.. Baker explains this strange fancy
the polar animals have for lying out
stretched on broiling hot cement pave
ment under July sun. It seems that
in his native haunts the polar bear seeks
all the sunlight he can for his maps on
his private ice foe. He can't get enough
sun up there to keep him comfortably
warm. When he was moved to these
torrid chimes he still persisted in ex-
posing himself to the suns rays on every
possible occasion. II awnings were not
spread he would lie out in the sun until
he fried. He would not think of seeking
shade even il he found the sun uncom-
fortably hot. This is because he has no
such thing as shade in his northern
home. There are no trees to give shade |
for the sun is never warm enough I'D |
there to make one think of searching |
out a shady nook. i
1t Is the bear, polar as well as the |
bruin of the temperate zone, whose |
existence In captivity interrupts one of |
his age-old customs, that of alternating |
during the winter months. In a wild |
state. old bruin feeds himself up during
the fall until he is as fat as tub of |
butter, and then, when winter spreads /
Its white mantle over the world, HES |
him to his cozy den,-snuggles down in |
side his thick warm fur and goes to
sleep. All winter long he sleeps. waking
to shake kink out of
leg or taking a blinking look at the land
scape. Back to sleep he goes, with
never morsel Of food. living on the fat
under his furry hide until springtime
comes. Then, thin, haggard. and VI I
ciously hungry, he fares forth into the
budding world of green and begins his
summer-long banquet. 1t Is during this
period of Information. too, that the L
mother bear usually brings her cubs into
ong weeks while she sleeps peacefully
IN. The bear cubs. consequently, are
much more immature when born than 4
he young of other animals. Their eyes.
or instance. don't open for forty days.
All this. however, is different with the
Years Of the Zoo. They are kept awake
~ their surroundings and their regular
Iupply OF food all winter long. They
leep. Of course, at night. and during the
lay too, except at meal time. They
haven't the opportunity to hibernate and
therefore, they seldom breed while In cap
ivity. Only one bear cub was born this 4
pring lat the Zoo. and that to pair
4 Russian brown bears whose habits
IRE little different anyway from most
Eva h. 2r,<H horr y<>~u~ II