This bear was taken on April 28, 1987, on Kodiak Island, Alaska. It is an Alaska Brown Bear, sometimes also known as a Kodiak Brown Bear. Brown Bears are the largest species of bears and are also the largest land carnivores (although the bears are omnivorous and will eat plants and anything else that they can take advantage of for food). This is a very large example of an Alaska Brown Bear, which has also been accepted into the Boone and Crockett All-time Record Book.

Since 1988, many people have seen this bear who otherwise might never see a bear of this size. In one case, one young man traveled here to learn more about bears. It seems he had read a great deal but couldn't comprehend the size of a bear until he touched this bear--the reason was that he was blind. Anyone can come to the WMSCo office during business hours to see the bear and ask questions.

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The old farm is gone now and the apple orchard and fields are overgrown. The cellar holes where the house and barn once stood are filled with trees and bushes. In 1932 the property belonged to the Brown Company, the logging and paper making giant of northern N.H.. Many of the farms along the Androscoggin River were owned and used for summering the winter logging work horses. Our family was renting the previously mentioned farm just east of the famous Philbrick Farm in Shelburne N.H.. I suppose we were poor by today's standards, but I have rich memories of those early years. Family, friends, play, gardens and pets filled our young lives. It is one of these pets that make up this story.

It had been a rainy December and in January of 1933; the wet weather continued and some of the low lying areas had been flooded. On February 12th , my father, Carl Rines, and two friends, Irving Drew and Darrell (Dally) Hewitt, went rabbit hunting on Stockfarm Mountain in Shelburne not far from the Maine border. It was their custom to hunt rabbits at that time with 22 caliber rifles.

The dog had started running a rabbit and was sounding off as he followed the trail. While the men were trying to get into shooting range, they heard an unfamiliar noise and they began discussing what it might be. Irving thought it was a young porcupine. When they pulled back the brush Dad stood face to face with a full grown, 300 pound black bear. Without thinking he pulled up the rifle and fired several times hitting her between the eyes and killing her almost instantly. They then discovered the noise they had heard were two baby cubs. They bundled the cubs in their jackets and loaded the dead bear into the Model A pickup and brought them home.

The larger of the two cubs cried a lot and died the first night. My folks discovered that the mother had hit the male cub and had broken its back. They surmised that the mother hearing the dog running rabbits had hit the cub to keep it quiet. We later learned that adult bear will often kill their young if they sense danger. The male cub that died weighed 4 pounds and the female weighed 3.5 pounds. Dad took the body of the mother bear to find out about having a bearskin rug made. When he learned that he had to skin it out keeping the claws and skull in a certain way or pay to have it done, he gave the pelt away, as money was scarce in those days.

By reading books about bear behavior and discovering how old cubs were when their eyes opened; my folks figured the cubs were born about January 16th. My sister was two months old at the time, so mother started caring for two babies. To keep the cub warm and contented at night Mother would put her in a bushel basket with a quart canning jar filled with hot water and wrapped in a towel. The cub would lay right across the jar and sleep. When Mother would get up to give my sister a bottle she would also give the cub a bottle and refill the canning jar with hot water. This little bear got a good nutritious start in life.

It was the first of April before she could climb out of the basket by herself. A bear must learn to walk much as a human. When she first tried she would lift both feet on one side. Naturally she would fall over creating entertainment for the family. After about a week she mastered walking. She also learned to eat from a dish that was nailed to the floor. She would lay with her front paws around the dish while she ate. Finding it impossible to house break her; as soon as she was finished eating; she was tied outdoors. We found out that you never touched her dish while she was eating, because that was the only time she would growl. A friend found out that she would bite if you tried to touch her dish while she was eating.

We had a wood box in the kitchen and it was divided in half. One half became her domain. When Mother was sweeping the floor, the cub would often jump onto the broom and wrap her legs around the handle so that she could go for a ride. This was fun for her but Mom would get sick of it and give her a swat. She would jump into the wood box and it seemed that she would be peeking over the top before she had time to hit bottom.

One friend, Ed Hurley of Gorham N.H., used to take her for rides in the car. To keep her from crawling all over the place, she was put on a leash. No matter how short they made the leash she would find a way to get on the seat and lie down. If the leash was real short she would back up on to the seat. She was taken all over town like any pet and needless to say she was a crowd pleaser.

When warm weather came she was tied outside the kitchen door to a spruce tree with 50 feet of light weight chain. She would climb the tree and tangle the chain all around the limbs. When she came down she would just reverse her route and never got tangled. Once a friend came by and seeing her all tangled, he climbed up the tree to help her down. By the time he got down she was back up the tree.

In the corner of the old farm kitchen was the old cast iron vent pipe common in those days as indoor plumbing was added to old places and left exposed. This aroused her curiosity and she tried to climb it. Her claws wouldn't grab into iron but she kept trying. She learned how to shinny and gradually learned how to get up the pipe, and finally after days of trying she reached the ceiling. She smelled around and came down and never tried it again.

While Dad was working outside he would let her run loose. Her eyesight was not very good, bear are usually nearsighted but their sense of smell is extremely acute. If Dad was working in the apple orchard she would stay close but would also climb trees. If Dad moved off and she lost his scent she would hang down from the branch she was on and then just let go, and bounce off limbs and hit the ground with a grunt and come up running after Dad. At the time my older brother, Stanley, was about 6 years old and I was about 5 and she would run and play with us. The folks were worried that as she was getting older and stronger that she would hurt one of us while playing. A bear cannot retract their claws like a cat, the claws are always exposed.

One time the paper man from Lewiston, Maine stopped on his monthly rounds to collect his pay. Dad was out in the yard and he asked the fellow what he would do if he saw a bear in the tree over his head. He said that would really be something, so Dad told him to look up. The cub was right over his head on a limb. Dad said the paper man moved quite fast.

To play with her we often used an oatmeal box and put a spoon inside and roll it toward her. She would hear it coming and roll back on her rump and as it got close, she would spit like a cat, and then hit it with both front feet. Dad would tease her by lying on the couch and she would try to follow his scent. When she got close he would move, she would climb up and not finding him she would get down and then he would repeat the process. Her eyesight was indeed limited but her sense of smell was exceptional.

We had a small dog and the two of them played well together. They would chase each other and run over and around chairs. When the cub would climb over the rungs of the chair; she would fall and seem very clumsy and awkward. However when the dog got close she would hit the dog and run. If you were not watching closely, you could not see her hit the dog, her reactions were to fast. When a bear runs they appear to be clumsy or rolling; but their back feet are reaching in front of their forelegs so that the body appears to roll.

We had some special friends in Gorham, Ed and Helen Hurley, who used to take the bear for a visit. They also had a large male cat who was like a family member and very spoiled. He thought he was king of their house. On the cub's first visit they placed the cub on the kitchen floor. The big tomcat came into the room and was more then slightly upset with this intruder. As a cat will, he bristled all up to appear larger and approached the bear. He made several false passes and finally scratched the cub on the nose. The cub just sat there and cried. About a month later they again had the cub for a visit and the cat started a repeat performance. As the cat got closer the cub rolled back on his haunches, and when the cat was in range, she made no false passes but smacked him and sent him spinning into the wall. The cat never bothered the bear again.

One day Dad had the cub in Gorham without his leash and policeman Hatch, who later became chief, hollered to dad to put the cub back in the car as his dog was around. Dad said "I'll take a chance on the bear". Mr. Hatch said "Don't say I didn't warn you." The dog came around and the cub hit the dog and the dog ran all the way home.

"Honey" Graham ran the Log Cabin Gift Store in the Gorham town square. He had a parrot that was quite an attraction for tourists. The bear cub and the parrot would circle each other but each respected the other and never had any trouble.

As I mentioned earlier the folks were concerned for our safety and she was growing larger and more powerful. In late May they made up and sold raffle tickets. The man who won her ran a gas station in Randolph/ Jefferson area. He was afraid of her and when her collar needed adjusting, he would call Dad or Ed Hurley. We would go up to visit her and buy her ice cream cones. One day she started to tip the cone and I reached through the cage to straighten it and she cuffed at me. She was only protecting her food but Dad wasn't as forgiving and we didn't go to see her as often.

After a time the owner gave her to a friend in New York. Soon after a law was passed in New York that forbid people from keeping wild animals in captivity and he gave her to the Bronx Zoo. A few years later my mother tried to trace her. According to my father's Aunt Daisy, while visiting her daughter on Long Island, they went to Bronx Zoo to see her. On her cage was a sign "LARGEST BLACK BEAR IN CAPTIVITY:" .I sometimes wonder how long she lived. It is no wonder that she grew large considering the care she had as cub.

Recently I made an attempt to trace her and wrote to the Bronx Zoo. In that time frame they had five bear donated and not knowing the previous owners, we seemed have lost the trail. I would like to continue the search but do not have much information to go on. My mother passed away in 1991 and Darrell Hewitt the last of the hunters can't remember any names that would help.

By Mark F. Rines
P.O. Box 633
Wolfeboro N.H. 03894