Evening star., 1932-05-06
FIGHT
+. FOR BROWN BEARS
mus. SANCTUARY
Want Alaskan Island Set
Aside Despite Large Tim
ber Resources.
OPPOSE PAPER INTERESTS
GIVEN RIGHTS TO AREA
Mammologists Deplore Options
Z Granted by Forestry Service as
Menace to Animals Safety.
BY THOMAS r, HENRY.

The brown bear, pictured as a gen.
tleman among beasts, who asks only tt
be let alone, seemed likely today tc
cause fight between the American So
ciety of Mammalogists and the various
government agencies concerned with
! preservation of wild life.
The mammalogists will consider this
afternoon a resolution asking that Ad-
miralty Island, off the Southern CoaS'
of Alaska, rich in pulpwood, be set aside
as bear sanctuary.
Timber Tracts Wanted.
Various Western paper companies, II
was pointed out, want to exploit the re-
sources of the island and consider that
it is necessary to kill off the bears for
the protection of their workmen.
The island now is in charge OF the
Forestry Service. 1t has granted op-
tions on the timber and this, the mann
malogists claim, means the end OF tht
brown bear. The Department OF Agrl-
culture believes that the bears are suffi-
GENTLY protected under existing regula-
tions and that bears and men can live
peacefully together.
n1iralty Island and the mammalogists
claim that there is no pressing demand
for the timber and that it is of more
Importance for the country that the
animals be preserved. They are harm
less creatures, said John M. Holzworth
of the National Association of Wild Life
Conservationists, who will not attack
man unless they are attacked, who are
extremely intelligent and for whom the
Admiralty Island country is ideally
adapted.
Has Lost Vertebrae.
Man has dropped a couple CT verte-
brae somewhere along the road OF
evolution. DR.. William L. Strauss OF
Johns Hopkins University told the
mammalogists. But he still is tagging
behind his cousins, the gorillas ano
chimpanZees, in the vertebrae-discard-
ing process which seems to be one OF
the major lines of anthropoid develop
ment, DR.. Straus said.
The general pattern of the mammal
spine, he said, consists of l9 vertebrae
The great monkey family is deviating
from this standard in both directions
The agile tree dwellers are adding
vertebrae while the whole group NOV
ing in the general anthropoid direction
is dropping them, and the nerves which
control movements Of the lower limbs
are moving upward.
Man, he said, seems to have settled
down with II. There are very rare
proximately 90 per cent Of the human
race stick to the conventional num-
Der. But the gorilla has IS ribs and
some Of the chimpanzees only Is and
neither animal appears to have made
up its mind as to how many it wants
Individuals show great variations
This is one instance, he said, In
which the great apes seem to have
gone a step beyond man in a line OF
evolution which all have followed to-
gether, and they may be contemplating
still further step.
Bleeding Disease Explained.
Other ways in which man is tagging
behind the rest of his family in COM
mon lines of physical evolution were
detailed by DR.. Adolph H. Schultz Of
Johns Hopkins.
In one of the discussions yesterday
following paper by DR.. M. w. Lyon
president of the society. it was brought
out that the strange, hereditary bleed
ing disease" which afflicts the males
Of the former Spanish royal family
avoiding the mothers, but appearing ir
their sons, now can be controlled BY
injecting into the blood stream of the
victim a substance obtained from the
female body. The disease apparently
is due to some deficiency in the blood
which prevents 1t from "clotting" or
contact with air, so that the victim
NAV bleed to death from a Very slight
wound. Injection of the female hor-
none, it was pointed out, will stop the
bleeding Immediately, and this explains
why no woman ever has the disease.
How mice vary in color in direct re-
lation' to their environment was de-
scribed by Philip M Blossom and Lee
r. Dice of the University of Michigan
A turtle with two heads was showr
members of the American Society O
Herptologists yesterday by Miss Grace
Wiley of the Minneapolis Public Library
Museum. 1t was then taken to the
National Geological Park to be exhibited
for the rest of the week. 1t is, Mis-.
Wiley said, a perfect example of the
Siamese twin phenomenon among tur.
ties. There Is one shell and one di-
gestive apparatus, but two heads anc
two sets of limbs.
A new variety of lizard, which Is con.
fined entirely to the navy yard at Key
West, Fla. and which has been named
in honor of DR.. Leonard Stejneger Of
the National Museum, was described BY
Maurice X. Brady.