BIG BEARS FOUND

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29251, 8 July 1960, Page 21

BIG BEARS FOUND

Half A Tonin ; Weight {arom a neuter EDMONTON. 1 Zoologists are studying a | type of super-bears, once thought to be extinct before the turn of the century, but rediscovered in the Valley of Giants, until recently one of the least accessible areas in North America. The bears each weigh almost half a ton and measure as much as 10 feet from nose to hind paw. They have pads measuring eight inches across. 1 They were rediscovered on a bright spring day in 1053 by Bella Twin, a sprightly 67-year-old Indian woman, who dropped one of the huge grizzly bears with a shot in the brain with a 22 rifle. She also triggered one of the most unusual zoological finds in years. The bears, the largest grizzlies known to man, inhabit the Swan Hills region 150 miles north-west of Edmonton. The Valley of Giants was opened up only when men seeking oil marched through the wilderness. Zoologists believe the bears are descendants of the huge plains grizzlies, which once moved across the western prairies with vast herds of buffalo. Fewer than 400 of the bears are believed to have survived and all of them are believed to be living in the 8000 square , miles of wilderness vormnnriing the nil camps in the Swan Hills region. The * provincial government has placed the region out of bounds for bear hunters. T