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Alligators and
crocodiles live in wet areas of the southeastern USA. The crocodile lives in coastal
areas; the alligator lives in rivers and swamps. Alligator skin was used to make handbags
and shoes, but now there is a law against alligator hunting in the USA.
The bald eagle is the official national bird of the United
State of America. It can be seen on 25-cent coins and dollar bills. The bald eagle once
lived in many of the forest areas of the USA from Florida to Alaska, but it is now
becoming rare.
As the earth warmed some 15,000 years ago the big ice started to melt. The grass
supported huge grazers. There were giant elephants, camels, horses and giant
bizons. There were also the men who hunted all of them at last 11,000 years ago.
A man lived in North Dakota over 100 centuries ago. His meal
consisted of bison steaks and wild onions. For more than a thousand years, his
nomadic ancestors had been camping there. That ancient lifestyle was not fated
to last forever.
A "downsized" buffalo took the giant bison's place.
This buffalo was more suited to the changing conditions. It adapted and survived
both his hunters and a drier, warmer climate. By 5,000 years ago, then numbering
in the millions, they covered the grasslands. Native Americans had much respect
for fellow creatures. When more buffaloes were killed than people could consume
fresh, the surplus would be pounded flat, rubbed with berries and dried, making
pemmican, the universal answer to seasonal
food
shortages. Buffalo hides (kůže)
became robes, blankets, mattresses, cradles, teepee walls and the canvas for
individual and tribal histories. Some tribes made boats from them. Rawhide
became snowshoes and drums. Horns provided spoons and ladles (naběračky),
impressive adornments for headdresses, toys and cups. Fresh tongue was a
delicacy and the rough side was used as a comb. The buffalo bladder (močový
měchýř) was made into pouches and
medicine bags. Bones became everything from toys, paintbrushes and jewelry. The
stomach liner (žaludek)
was used to carry water and to cook soup.
Native Americans laid careful traps for buffaloes and they
didn't threaten the buffalo's survival as a species (neohrozili
přežití bizona jako druhu). There were
perhaps 10 million buffaloes on the Northern Plains before white hunters came.
There may have been only 40 or 50 thousand Native Americans living in the
region. That means that only 3% of the herd was needed to supply human needs.
The Indian culture based on the buffalo lasted for thousands of years. But in
the 19th century the great herds disappeared quickly, their final destruction
taking only from about 1870 to the mid-1880s. It became U.S. Army police to
eliminate the buffalo. White hunters along with passengers on excursion trains,
were eager to help. Bones piled up across the countryside.
The last bastion of buffaloes was the region of Montana.
Lakota Sioux Indians under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse hunted there. Sitting
Bull led those who rejected the idea of becoming farmers on the reservations. He
said: "I will remain what I am until I die - a
hunter.
And where there are no buffaloes or other game, I will send my children to hunt
and live upon prairie mice, for when an Indian is shut up in one place his body
becomes weak".
In 1883, the last great buffalo hunt took place in North
Dakota. A commemoration of that event is held every year in early July.
In the next year the herd fell to only 200 animals. In 1894,
President Grover Cleveland signed the Yellowstone Protection Bill - the first
national legislation protecting buffalo. The buffaloes are nowadays one of the
main attractions in Yellowstone National Park. It is impossible to drive across
the park without seeing them. They are majestic in the park's alpine meadows -
real traffic stoppers.
Beavers are furry animals with large front teeth. They look rather like large rats, but
have large flat tails. The smooth fur of the beaver was once very fashionable for hats.
Hunters traveled all over the northern USA to catch beavers.
In the cold north tundra you can see also caribou.
The cougar,
or mountain lion, and the bobcat are large
cat-like animals. They are found in the deserts and mountains of the USA.
The smaller
coyote looks like a mixture of a fox and a dog.
The coyote lives in the dry western deserts and plains, and it hunts small animals.
There
are many kinds of bears in America, including the brown bear, the California black bear,
and the grizzly. When it stands up on its back legs, a
grizzly bear is much taller than a man. It will attack if it is frightened.
Seals were also hunted for their beautiful fur. They live in the Pacific Ocean,
from San Francisco to Alaska and Hawaii.
Many kinds of whales live in the oceans, too. If you visit the Hawaiian Islands
or California in December, you can take a "whale-watching boat" to see groups of
whales swimming to warmer southern oceans.
Some American animals
are dangerous. Wolves live in the northern mountains of the
USA and Canada. Wolves kill sheep and cows, but they seldom attack people.
