The Australian Native Bear.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 67

The Australian Native Bear.

(By F. R., in the Australasian.)

If there is one animal to whom the term "harmless' 1 can be properly ascribed it is the Australian bear, the koala. Its one ruling passion i« to escape observation ; and to be left alone. It has, I think, easily tho most expressionless face of any Australian animal. I have often looked them carefully in the eyos, and have failed to find any expression at all, except, per haps, that of timidity. Their face, somehow, always reminds me of that of a baby, and the effect is accentuated by the general helplessness of the animal. When I was a lad the«e native boars wore very numerous in our neighbourhood, and I often caught them. They wander about a good deal in the night, in spite of their poor locomotive powers; and it often seemed to me as if they climbed the first tree that they came to when daybreak warned them to retire. At anyrate, I have, time and again, seen them* camped in most unsuitable situations. Often I have seen a full-growji bear clingfng to a sapling, that swayed to and fro with its weight. Oncr\ while driving along a frequently-used road, I saw a bear in the top of the smallest and thinnest tree around, within a few paces of the Toad. It was in the middle of the day, and there was a bright sun, so that the position was most unsuitable, and the bear must have been in abject misery. But there he clung, waiting patiently for nightfall, although there, were big, suitable trees -within a few chains of him. Sometimes he mistakes a. fence-post for a tree, and will sit humbly on the top of it for hours at a time. I once discovered a bear perched on the ridge-pole of a deserted hut, where it resembled a huuc cat.

There were plenty of trees about; btrt the 'bear, on its way home after being" out on a foraging, expedition,- had evidently run against the house. Holding the general bear opinion that everything upright ia a tree, he had quietly climbed the wall, and, once on top, had stayed there. The skin of the bear is practically worthless ; but, all the same, a large number are killed and skinned every year. Unfortunately, the bear is so completely helpless, so conspicuous, and so slow in its movements that it falls an easy prey to the hunter. Ac a lad, I regret to confess, I took my part in the general slaughter, with the result that in our district you have to search carefully now to find one of these interesting animals. I tried trapping them, but the bear is considerably stronger than he looks; and every time he got caught he milled the trap up and carted it away with him up the tree. The first bear that I shot had one of my traps on his leg, and it was partly for the sake of the trap that I shot him. I had an old smooth-bore shot-gun, out of which I used to fire spherical, home-made bullets, and I was particularly proud of tho fact that it only took three shots to bring tho bear down from the top of a big, 60-foot eucalyptus. The next bear I came across, I brought out the old smooth-bore again ; but, alas! I exhausted my bullets, and the bear still remained aloft. I left him, however, confident that his dead body would be found at the foot of the tree in the morning. Early in the morning I' revisited ths tree, but the bear had vanished. It is astonishiug how much lead a bear will carry if it is not hit in a vital spot at the first or*second shot. The young bear is a very pretty, lovablelooking little thing, and t can never understand auyone shooting the female bear when she has her young one on her back, as so often happens. I believe she has only one young one at a time, so that the process of 'extermination in the ease of the bear promises to be fairly speedy. Another factor helping towards the same end is that the bear has not a very wide range. It 16 principally found in Victoria, and the eastern, or forest, portion of New South Wales; while a few are said to exist in Southern Queensland. One would have c tweeted it to be abundant in the thicklywooded island of Tasmania, but I understand that it is not found there at all. A peculiarity of the koala, which to ar greatextent explains its limited range, is 'the fact that it lives almost exclusively on the leaves of the eucalyptus. It may eat a little grass or other vegetable matter; but tho gum-leaf is its staff of life, and if depriyed of it it ' soou pines and dies It has been found practically impossible to take live specimens of 'he bear abroad. I believe the London Zoological Gardens have had an odd bear, but they have not lived long in them. I have while skinning the bear often remarked the strong odour of eucalyptus that pervades the' carcase.