The animal when trapped makes off
at once, biting at the trap and the bar; but it leaves a broad wake and
sooner or later is found tangled up by the chain and bar. A bear is by
no means so difficult to trap as a wolf or fox although more so than a
cougar or a lynx. In wild regions a skilful trapper can often catch a
great many with comparative ease. A cunning old grisly however, soon
learns the danger, and is then almost impossible to trap, as it either
avoids the neighborhood altogether or finds out some way by which to get
at the bait without springing the trap, or else deliberately springs it
first. I have been told of bears which spring traps by rolling across
them, the iron jaws slipping harmlessly off the big round body. An old
horse is the most common bait.
It is, of course, all right to trap bears when they are followed merely
as vermin or for the sake of the fur. Occasionally, however, hunters
who are out merely for sport adopt this method; but this should never be
done. To shoot a trapped bear for sport is a thoroughly unsportsmanlike
proceeding.
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