9781422276334

skull with one bite or lacerate his flesh to the bone with one slap. A trainer’s “pet” bear, however well trained, essentially remains for- ever wild, and the trainer avoids danger only because he knows “his” bear so well and is so expert in every aspect of handling the animal. A trained bear may be amusing, but to many it is also

a terribly saddening sight, a creature out of its element, cap- tive, made to perform demean- ing tricks instead of living as it was born to live. To many, it is a victim of human witches more heartless than those in fairy tales, who have turned it into something less noble and mag- nificent than its true identity.

A large male polar bear leaps to an ice floe—not to avoid the water but simply because this is the quickest, easiest way to get there. A polar bear can swim 50 miles (80 kilometers) without resting.

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