An episode appeared twice a month
in The Michigan Farmer magazine.
Whitepaw and Blackpaw Start School
"Have you ever seen a bear's school?" Uncle Joe asked us
when we visited him the next day.
I understood, readily, the twinkle in Uncle Joe's eyes, but Jerry was
wide-eyed with wonder. "Do bears have schools?" he asked.
"Not schoolhouses like you would attend. Their school is the woods
where they are born, and the mother bear is the teacher."
"I'd — that is — we would like to hear more about
the school days of the cubs."
"Very well," Uncle Joe agreed. "A couple of weeks after
Whitepaw's fall from the tree, the mother bear decided it was time to
start training her cubs. It was a bright sunshiny morning when they
started out; the mother bear leading and the cubs not far behind. Blackpaw
stayed close to her mother but Whitepaw was here and there sniffing
and inspecting everything he came across. This was the first time they
had been very far from the cave and everything was new to them.
"Presently the mother bear stopped. Before her was a big anthill,
and with one blow of her paw she broke the top of it. Of course the
cubs were on hand to see what it was all about. Their mother laid her
paw on top of the anthill and then began to lick her paw vigorously."
"What did she do that for?" Jerry interrupted.
"That was what the cubs wanted to know," Uncle Joe replied.
"They kept watching and watching. Soon they saw that the ants were
crawling up on their mother's paw and she was licking them off and eating
them."
"Do bears eat ants?" Jerry asked.
"Yes," Uncle Joe nodded. "Usually they eat them just
after their winter's sleep." He laughed. "Maybe it's for an
appetizer."
I wondered if the cubs ate any of the ants and asked Uncle Joe.
"Very few," he said. "They tried it just because the
mother bear did, but they made up funny faces when the ants tickled
their tongues.
"The next thing the mother bear did was to take them down to the
river. She waded right out into the water but the cubs stayed on the
bank. Whitepaw evidently remembered his fall into the water for he waited
some distance away.
"The mother bear stood very still for a few minutes. Then, with
one blow of her right, front paw she sent something flying out of the
water and up on the bank."
Jerry smiled. "I'll bet it was a fish," he said.
"You're right," said Uncle Joe. "Their mother waded
out of the water, finished killing the fish, which was a large bass,
with another blow of her paw and then proceeded to eat it. The cubs
nibbled away but they were more interested in other things.
"When the mother bear had finished the fish they went into the
woods again. By now Whitepaw was becoming bolder in his actions. He
would run ahead or stray behind. Several times his mother gave him a
couple of cuffs when he didn't mind.
"Farther into the woods, their mother tore a log to pieces with
her teeth and claws and showed them how to find mice and nice fat grubs.
This was too tame for Whitepaw. He wanted more excitement and away he
ran among the trees. He made funny little "woof-woofs" at
stones and trees as he passed. Then, suddenly, he found himself face
to face with one of the funniest things he had ever seen in his young
life."
Uncle Joe paused for a minute. "When I saw what it was I was afraid
for that little bear," Uncle Joe continued. "I was right in
my fear, too, for that meeting was to change the whole course of that
little cub's life. It was to bring him into my home for awhile and lose
him to Friendly Forest for a time."
Click HERE to read "Whitepaw
Discovers a Pincushion"
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© 2004 Leo VanMeer
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