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Authors: Theodore Taylor
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looking at me steadily while talking to me. I've told you that people I've known for a while do that, but strangers usually look away."
Taking a deep breath, Clewt nodded, preferring to
make no comment. He always avoided talking about Chip's appearance.
"I didn't learn too much about him, except that he's not married. He talked mainly about bears and promised I'd know most of what he knows by the time
weâ
he actually said 'we'âare finished."
"That's good."
"You ever been close to one?"
Clewt shook his head.
Chip laughed. "I may actually touch one tomorrow."
"Hope you do."
Chip talked until they both went off to bed about nine, the Powhatan beginning to fade into noisy darkness.
***
MILD, cloudy June dawn, bird chatter having begun at soft, new, pink light: Chip stood in awe beside Telford looking at their first captive twenty feet away, a big male tied off to the loblolly. Frustrated and fuming, grunting, he'd scattered the branches and churned up the ground in a ten-foot radius trying to break loose from the steel tether.
"He'll be more than three hundred pounds, bigger than average," said Telford, studying the captive, pleased with its size. "We'll use the dart rifle to put him to
sleep. If he was smaller I'd use the jab-stick. The force of the dart sometimes causes muscle trauma."
A blowgun syringe was also in the truck. Each syringe carried tranquilizing potions mixed according to the bear's weight.
Chip stared at the angry black as it pulled against the wire noose that firmly held its left front paw, then rose on its hind legs to look at them with puffy red eyes, "whuffing" at them, clacking its teeth, then dropping back to all fours.
"He's probably been doing that all night, getting madder by the minute, so let's put him to sleep," Telford said, loading the dart gun with the tranquilizing mixture. "So you'll know, Rompun is the trade name for xylazine hydrochloride, a sedative; and Ketacet is actually ketamine hydrochloride. Vets use them all the time. They're safe, if you mix them carefully and use the right amounts. Much smaller doses for females."
Still staring at the animal, Chip was lost over the chemical terms. He'd ask about them later.
The bear suddenly sat down, crossing his front paws. He returned Chip's stare curiouslyâas if he was trying to figure out what these silly two-legged animals were. Dirt and twigs and pine needles had lodged in his thick coat, which was jet black. His nose was whitish brown. His leathery nostrils were wet and shining from exertion.
Telford made a sudden move toward him, yelling,
"Hey, you, get up! Get up!" and aiming the dart rifle. "I need to hit him in the flank," he said to Chip.
Coming erect at the sudden, hostile movement, the bear became a target for a brief few seconds, and Telford pulled the trigger. The dart drove into his left hindquarter.
Watching it strain against the tether, feeling the bear's frustration and helplessness, Chip even felt a bit sorry that it was captured.
"Usually they go under in five to fifteen minutes. Fatter they are, the longer it takes. Fat absorbs the drug. This one'll take twelve to fifteen, I'd guess."
"What happens if they wake up before you're finished?"
"You have a problem. Hurry, is what you do."
Telford had laid out the radio-collar, the lip tattoo device, a vacuum-tube syringe to draw off a blood sample, and several yellow plastic ID ear tags. Also on the square of canvas was a pair of forceps, used to extract a tooth to determine age. They'd lugged in a tripod for lifting and weighing the bear.
"You'll learn soon enough. We'll try to do a hundred animals over the next two years. There are enough radio frequencies to track thirty at a time...."
A few minutes later, Bear 1-88ânumber one in the 1988 studyâbegan to blink, a sign that the Rompun and Ketacet were taking effect. On all fours and quiet, he was looking around vacantly as if he realized
something odd was happening to him. He
Taking a deep breath, Clewt nodded, preferring to
make no comment. He always avoided talking about Chip's appearance.
"I didn't learn too much about him, except that he's not married. He talked mainly about bears and promised I'd know most of what he knows by the time
weâ
he actually said 'we'âare finished."
"That's good."
"You ever been close to one?"
Clewt shook his head.
Chip laughed. "I may actually touch one tomorrow."
"Hope you do."
Chip talked until they both went off to bed about nine, the Powhatan beginning to fade into noisy darkness.
***
MILD, cloudy June dawn, bird chatter having begun at soft, new, pink light: Chip stood in awe beside Telford looking at their first captive twenty feet away, a big male tied off to the loblolly. Frustrated and fuming, grunting, he'd scattered the branches and churned up the ground in a ten-foot radius trying to break loose from the steel tether.
"He'll be more than three hundred pounds, bigger than average," said Telford, studying the captive, pleased with its size. "We'll use the dart rifle to put him to
sleep. If he was smaller I'd use the jab-stick. The force of the dart sometimes causes muscle trauma."
A blowgun syringe was also in the truck. Each syringe carried tranquilizing potions mixed according to the bear's weight.
Chip stared at the angry black as it pulled against the wire noose that firmly held its left front paw, then rose on its hind legs to look at them with puffy red eyes, "whuffing" at them, clacking its teeth, then dropping back to all fours.
"He's probably been doing that all night, getting madder by the minute, so let's put him to sleep," Telford said, loading the dart gun with the tranquilizing mixture. "So you'll know, Rompun is the trade name for xylazine hydrochloride, a sedative; and Ketacet is actually ketamine hydrochloride. Vets use them all the time. They're safe, if you mix them carefully and use the right amounts. Much smaller doses for females."
Still staring at the animal, Chip was lost over the chemical terms. He'd ask about them later.
The bear suddenly sat down, crossing his front paws. He returned Chip's stare curiouslyâas if he was trying to figure out what these silly two-legged animals were. Dirt and twigs and pine needles had lodged in his thick coat, which was jet black. His nose was whitish brown. His leathery nostrils were wet and shining from exertion.
Telford made a sudden move toward him, yelling,
"Hey, you, get up! Get up!" and aiming the dart rifle. "I need to hit him in the flank," he said to Chip.
Coming erect at the sudden, hostile movement, the bear became a target for a brief few seconds, and Telford pulled the trigger. The dart drove into his left hindquarter.
Watching it strain against the tether, feeling the bear's frustration and helplessness, Chip even felt a bit sorry that it was captured.
"Usually they go under in five to fifteen minutes. Fatter they are, the longer it takes. Fat absorbs the drug. This one'll take twelve to fifteen, I'd guess."
"What happens if they wake up before you're finished?"
"You have a problem. Hurry, is what you do."
Telford had laid out the radio-collar, the lip tattoo device, a vacuum-tube syringe to draw off a blood sample, and several yellow plastic ID ear tags. Also on the square of canvas was a pair of forceps, used to extract a tooth to determine age. They'd lugged in a tripod for lifting and weighing the bear.
"You'll learn soon enough. We'll try to do a hundred animals over the next two years. There are enough radio frequencies to track thirty at a time...."
A few minutes later, Bear 1-88ânumber one in the 1988 studyâbegan to blink, a sign that the Rompun and Ketacet were taking effect. On all fours and quiet, he was looking around vacantly as if he realized
something odd was happening to him. He
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