California grizzly bear

For the University of California, Berkeley mascot, see California Golden Bears.

California grizzly bear
Monarch, a preserved specimen, on display at the California Academy of Sciences.
Conservation status
Extinct (1924) (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Genus:	Ursus
Species:	U. arctos
Subspecies:	U. arctos californicus
Trinomial name
Ursus arctos californicus Merriam 1896, pp. 76–77
Synonyms
colusus Merriam, 1914 henshawi Merriam, 1914 colusus Merriam, 1914 henshawi Merriam, 1914 klamathensis Merriam, 1914 magister Merriam, 1914 mendocinensis Merriam, 1916 tularensis Merriam, 1914

The California grizzly (Ursus arctos californicus) is an extinct population of the grizzly, the very large North American brown bear. "Grizzly" refers to the golden and grey tips of its hair. Genetically, North American grizzlies are closely related; in size and coloring, the California grizzly was much like the grizzly of the southern coast of Alaska. In California, it was particularly admired for its beauty, size, and strength. The grizzly became a symbol of the Bear Flag Republic, a moniker that was attached to the short-lived attempt by a band of American settlers to break away from Mexico. Later, this rebel flag became the basis for the state flag of California, and then California was known as the "Bear State."

In 1866, a grizzly weighing 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) was killed in Valley Center, California, the biggest bear ever found in California,

California still has habitat for about 500 grizzlies, and if the North Cascade population recovers and expands, it may be introduced to California. There are, however, only about 20 of these bears remaining in that ecosystem. In 2014 the US Fish and Wildlife Service received a petition to reintroduce the grizzly to California. This reintroduction would be from the very closely related Rocky Mountain grizzly.

Nomenclature

A Kodiak bear, nearest living kind to the California grizzly, despite its humpback.

"The specific status of North American brown bears (or grizzly bears) is one of the most complex problems of mammalian taxonomy. The difficulty stems directly from the work of Merriam (1918), who concluded that there are 86 forms of grizzlies (and brown bears) in North America."

Later, all North American grizzlies were scientifically grouped together as one unique species until DNA testing revealed that they should properly be grouped taxonomically in the same species as the other brown bears. Californian grizzlies were classified by Merriam into many species and subspecies but today the only subspecies is the ABC Islands bears.

Symbolism

Flag of California

The California grizzly is one of the state’s most visible and enduring symbols, adorning both the state flag and seal. The Bear Flag first flew in 1846 as a symbol of the short-lived California Republic. A second version was adopted as the state flag by the state legislature in 1911. The bear symbol became a permanent part of the state seal in 1849. The California Grizzly was designated the official state animal in 1953. The bear is celebrated in name and as mascot of the sports teams of the University of California, Berkeley (the California Golden Bears), and of the University of California, Los Angeles (the UCLA Bruins) and in the mascot of University of California, Riverside (Scottie the Bear, dressed in a Highland kilt). The California Maritime Academy operates a training ship named "Golden Bear".

History and extinction

Lassoing a grizzly, c. 1870s

The first recorded encounters of California grizzlies by the Europeans are in the diaries kept by several members of the 1769 Portola expedition, first exploration by land of what is now the state of California. Several place names that include the Spanish word for bear (oso) trace their origins back to that first expedition (e.g. Los Osos).

As the settled frontier of New Spain was extended northward, settlers began to populate California and establish large cattle herds as the main industry. The grizzly bears killed livestock and so became enemies of the rancheros. Vaqueros hunted the grizzlies, sometimes roping and capturing them to be displayed in public battles with bulls. This popular spectator sport inspired betting as to whether the bear or the bull would win.

One popular, though false account is that Horace Greeley, after seeing such a fight, gave the modern stock market its "bear" and "bull" nicknames — based on the fighting styles of the two animals: the bear swipes downward while the bull hooks upward.

Less than 75 years after the discovery of gold in 1848, almost every grizzly bear in California had been tracked down and killed. The last hunted California grizzly was shot in Tulare County, California, in August 1922. Later, in 1924, a grizzly known to roam an area of the Sierra Madre Mountains (Santa Barbara County) was spotted for the last time, and thereafter, grizzlies were never seen again in California.

Reintroduction

In 2014, the US Fish and Wildlife Service received and rejected a petition to reintroduce the California grizzly. In 2015 the Center for Biological Diversity launched another petition, this time aimed at the California state legislature, to reintroduce the grizzly bear into California.

The California grizzly bear has been considered as a possible candidate for attempts at deextinction.

External links

• Ursus arctos californicus Merriam, 1896 at the Encyclopedia of Life
• Shaggy God – Topic: Ursus arctos californicus Merriam, 1896
• The Monarch Bear Institute
• Bring Back the California Grizzly
• Grizzly Bear National Monument (proposed)

Data related to Ursus arctos californicus at Wikispecies