The Hunted Read Online Free

plants, and especially the animals. Like the bears. I’ve learned a lot about them since your mom’s been doing her research. Did you know that grizzly bears don’t really like the woods? They need open spaces—meadows and rangeland.”
    Shrugging, Ashley said, “So, what does that have to do with letting a fire turn the forest all ugly?”
    â€œEverything,” Olivia answered, twisting around in her seat. “When the settlers came into Montana and took over the lowlands for farming and grazing, the grizzlies had to move. They fled to the mountains, and they’ve adapted to living here, but it’s not their first choice. So the grizz tend to hang out in the open places in the forest. You’ve seen a lot of meadows up here, right?”
    Jack nodded. Glacier’s thick woods were like a sea of evergreen broken up by meadow islands. He’d seen small lakes that shone like mirrors in the sun, lots of open grassland, then thickets of woods dotted by meadows again.
    â€œOK,” Olivia went on, “follow me here. The fires clear out space, meadows spring up in that space, and the grasses bring the little animals and a place for the huckleberries, which, in turn, bring the bears. Do you see how it’s all connected?”
    â€œThe circle of life,” Jack chimed in.
    â€œExactly,” Olivia nodded. “The circle of life, which we shouldn’t mess with. When the parks used to put out fires, the forests got heavy with dead trees, and the meadows were getting all crowded out. It took a while for folks to figure it out, so now when there’s a fire, it’s allowed to burn. And pretty soon Mother Nature will put it all back together again.”
    â€œHey—do you think the missing baby grizzlies might have been killed in the fire that was here?” Jack asked, thinking that nothing much could survive the devastation of a searing forest fire. “Maybe that’s what happened to them.”
    â€œNo, believe it or not, forest fires aren’t anything like what you’ve seen in the movie Bambi , where all the animals are running for dear life. Most of the animals leave ahead of the flames, and a few burrow underground and aren’t even scorched, unless it’s a really hot burn. That’s not why the baby grizz are disappearing.”
    A shadow crossed Olivia’s face, and Jack noticed smudges underneath her eyes. She was worried about the missing cubs, he knew. She’d spent countless hours researching the information the park had given her. All the way to Glacier she’d reviewed the material, studying bear-sighting records and weather patterns and bear-mortality numbers and plant-growth statistics, especially about the abundance of huckleberries, because they are the bears’ favorite food. Doggedly, she’d searched for a clue the park officials might have overlooked. So far, she’d found nothing.
    Tiny lines gathered in Olivia’s forehead as she crinkled her brow. “You know, I can’t help thinking about little Marco, and what’s become of him. Jane’s right: The grizzly are a threatened species here in the lower 48, and we can’t spare even one of them. I just wish I knew what I was looking for.”
    â€œYou’ll fix it,” Jack assured her.
    â€œI hope so. Somebody’s got to, or the number of grizzlies in this park will be seriously impacted in a few generations, and that would be a terrible loss to everyone.”
    â€œExcept to the people who get eaten,” Ashley muttered, under her breath. “Nobody cares about what happens to them.”
    â€œWhat did you say, Ashley?” their mother asked.
    Ashley slumped in her seat. “Nothing.”
    â€œShe said, ‘Nobody cares about the people who get eaten,’” Jack offered, miffed that his sister sounded as though she didn’t worry about the baby bears.
    â€œJack!” Ashley cried, punching his