[Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches by Theodore Roosevelt]@TWC D-Link bookHunting the Grisly and Other Sketches CHAPTER III 19/45
At almost any season bear will come and feast on an elk carcass; and if the food supply runs short, in early spring, or in a fall when the berry crop fails, they sometimes have to do their own killing.
Twice I have come across the remains of elk, which had seemingly been slain and devoured by bears.
I have never heard of elk making a fight against a bear; yet, at close quarters and at bay, a bull elk in the rutting season is an ugly foe. A bull moose is even more formidable, being able to strike the most lightning-like blows with his terrible forefeet, his true weapons of defense.
I doubt if any beast of prey would rush in on one of these woodland giants, when his horns were grown, and if he was on his guard and bent on fight.
Nevertheless, the moose sometimes fall victims to the uncouth prowess of the grisly, in the thick wet forests of the high northern Rockies, where both beasts dwell.
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