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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 17, 2021 19:34:18 GMT -5
Ursus arctos californicus in the Santa Barbara, Natural History Museum
Scientific name: Ursus arctos californicus (Merriam, 1896
Description: A large bear, said to have been similar to the coastal grizzlies of Alaska. The skull was long and narrow with a massive underjaw. Pelage typically, but not exclusively, brownish yellow (hence the alternative common name “California golden bear”).
Range: Believed to have originally occupied all but the southeast and extreme northeast of what is present-day California. Increasingly became confined to the mountain regions away from the presence of humans.
Habitat: Open meadows, forests, sub-alpine mountain regions, tundra and coastal regions. They would have travelled to areas where food was abundant according to seasonal variations.
Life span: Probably twenty to thirty years in the wild.
Food: The bears were omnivorous with a diet that included grasses, seeds, berries, roots, nuts, acorns, small and large mammals including elk and deer, fish and carrion including beached whale carcasses.
Behaviour: The bears reached sexual maturity between the ages of four and seven years. Mating occurred between mid-June and July. The bears went into winter dens usually in October or November and typically emerged in April or May. Cubs were born in the den most likely in January. Litters were probably between one and four cubs, most commonly of two or three. They remained with the mother for two to three years during which time she would not become pregnant again. Except for mating and for mothers with cubs, California grizzlies were solitary but probably congregated in groups where there are plentiful sources of food, such as at salmon spawning grounds and whale carcasses.
Reasons for extinction: As the human population of California increased conflicts between bears and humans escalated with the bears killing livestock and attacking settlers. The bears were hunted and killed for sport but also captured and used in bear and bull fights. The last hunted California grizzly bear was shot in Tulare County in August 1922 and the last reported sighting was in 1924 in Sequoia National Park.
MORE INFORMATION
California Grizzly by Tracy I Storer & Lloyd P Tevis, Jr. (California, 1996). First published in 1955 this book remains as relevant as ever. Arguably the definitive account of the California grizzly bear.
www.bearconservation.org.uk/california-grizzly-bear-extinct/
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 9:35:38 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 9:38:58 GMT -5
VALLEY CENTER HISTORY MUSEUM
Valley Center Historical Society
The California GRIZZLY BEAR EXHIBITION at the VALLEY CENTER HISTORY MUSEUM [ORIGINAL TOWN NAME: BEAR VALLEY, CALIFORNIA] A town gets a name Valley Center was the site of the capture of the largest California Grizzly Bear in history. In 1866, a grizzly weighing 2,200 pounds was killed in the area. Although the town had been settled in 1845 and homesteaded in 1862, it had no formal name until the famous 1866 bear incident. The notoriety surrounding the event gave Valley Center its original name of Bear Valley. The name was subsequently changed to Valley in 1874, to Valley Centre in 1878 and, finally, to Valley Center in 1887. The legend of the great bear A giant grizzly bear, which had been threatening both man and cattle, was killed near the home of James and Ada Lovett in 1866. Lovett and several men dragged the giant animal to where it could be loaded onto a wagon and drove eight miles to the Vineyard Ranch of Col. A.E. Maxcy who had been offering a reward for the capture of the bear. The bear was hoisted onto Maxcy’s cattle scales where it weighed 2,200 pounds and was declared to be the largest grizzly bear ever killed in California. The bear was skinned and cut up, with more than one pound of lead found inside its head. Col. Maxcy kept the skull of the bear as a souvenir until around 1900 when it was reportedly sold to a museum in the south, believed to be either Georgia or Tennessee. Efforts in recent years to locate the skull have been unsuccessful. An eyewitness account The killing of the grizzly was witnessed in 1866 by the 6-year-old daughter of James and Ada Lovett. Some six decades later, in 1932 at age 72, Catherine E. Lovett Smith returned to the family homestead for a visit and provided an oral history of the event to the owner of the ranch, Edward P. Haskell. Mr. Haskell prepared a 3-page documentation of his interview with Catherine and provided a copy for the local history archives at Valley Center Library. His report is titled, How Bear Valley Got Its Name. A peach grower, Haskell created a peach label showing an old oak tree on his property where the bear reportedly attempted the attack. The tree still stands off Guejito Road as does the Lovett home. Descendants of two other pioneer families concur on the story of the bear and how Bear Valley got its name, but differ on the size of the animal. Clyde James, whose father homesteaded here in 1879, said the bear was well over 1,000 pounds. Waldo Breedlove, Sr., born here in 1889 and who grew up near the Lovett ranch, gave the exact weight as 1,950 pounds. The teddy bear In 1902, the 26th President of the United States went on a bear hunt, but refused to shoot the bear cub. A cartoon appeared in the Washington Post to publicize his ethical decision. So popular was Theodore Roosevelt’s decision that a toy stuffed bear was created to celebrate the event. And thus was born the Teddy (Roosevelt) Bear. The California Grizzly The California Grizzly Bear, the largest and most powerful of the bears, thrived in the state for centuries. Some grew to a formidable height of 8 feet and weighed 2,000 pounds, according to a history of California written in 1898. When European immigrants arrived in the state, it was estimated that 10,000 grizzlies inhabited most regions of California. As humans began to populate the state, the grizzly stood its ground, refusing to retreat in the face of advancing civilization. Less than 75 years after the discovery of gold, however, every grizzly in California had been tracked down and killed. It has been extinct since 1924. The killing begins Although the grizzly had roamed the state at will for 300 years, the gold rush of 1849 rang the death knell for the bear. It has been said that the appearance of the repeating rifle in 1848 spelled death for the grizzly. Initially hunted by miners and others because it was considered dangerous, the grizzly was then mercilessly hunted for sport and for its warm fur. Settlers in the late 1800s commonly shot and poisoned bears to protect their livestock. The stock market connection Spanish caballeros roped grizzlies, dragging them into doomed public battles with wild bulls. This popular spectator sport inspired betting as to whether the bear or the bull would win. This gave the modern stock market its “bear” and “bull” nicknames — the bear swipes downward while the bull hooks upward. The path to extinction The last known physical specimen of a California grizzly was shot and killed in Fresno County in 1922. Two years later, the last wild California grizzly was spotted several times in Sequoia National Park and then never seen again. Civilized man had made California’s official animal officially extinct by 1924. Our specimen The taxidermy mount of the grizzly bear on display at the Valley Center History Museum stands nearly 8 feet tall and weighs more than 1,200 pounds. It was originally on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum (founded 1874). It was acquired in 1992 by the Escondido Historical Society for display at its Heritage Walk Museum. The specimen was donated as a generous gift in 2002 by the Escondido Historical Society to the Valley Center History Museum because the bear was a significant part of Valley Center’s local history. Bear specimens in museums commonly come from bears that died of natural causes, illegally confiscated bears, or bears that had to be put down. The state symbol 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 46 as a symbol of the New Republic of California, but was replaced by a second version adopted 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. Sources: Local history collection at the Valley Center Library, archives of the Valley Center History Museum, the Science Museum of Minnesota, The Bancroft Library at the University of California, the Library of Congress, and the California State Library. www.vchistory.org/exhibits/grizzly-bear/
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:04:39 GMT -5
The Brutal Bull-and-Bear Fights of 19th-Century California
It’s hard to imagine now, but cruel bloodsport was once part of people’s Sunday routines.
A bull and bear fight in California, 1876. LOOK AND LEARN/ BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
High in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the violent years leading up to the Mexican-American War of 1846, lasso-toting horsemen known as vaqueros hunted an animal that is now extinct: the California grizzly bear.
Before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, it was believed that California held around 10,000 grizzly bears. In the 19th century, California grizzlies were most sought for their intrinsic fighting qualities, especially when coerced into combat with a bull—an event that served as entertainment for a crowd on many Sunday afternoons.
In the small cities and towns that peppered the valleys and coastal cliffs and mustard fields, a curious bloodsport had taken hold. Bear-baiting was brought to California by the conquistadors, but the sport itself was old as Rome. London in the Middle Ages built great amphitheaters known as bear-gardens to host the events. But in 19th-century California, the venues were more temporary and crude. Often known as “pits,” the slapdash arenas were built of split-board fencing and reinforced with heavy logs and adobe. A raised viewing platform was constructed for women and children, a family affair, while the men remained on horseback outside the barricades, raetas (braided-oxhide lassos), rifles and revolvers at the ready just in case the bear decided to climb its way out.
A depiction of bear-baiting in the Saxon era. PUBLIC DOMAIN
Such occasions usually commenced on Sundays, after church, when the townsfolk gathered after their pious songs and prayer, and slowly made their way to the town square toward the sounds of spectacle. As Hubert Howe Bancroft, American historian and ethnologist, wrote in California Pastoral, “A bull and bear fight after the sabbath services was indeed a happy occasion. It was a soul-refreshing sight to see the growling beasts of blood tied with a long raeta by one of its hind feet, as to leave it free to use its claws and teeth.” And there the spectators would find the vaqueros from the mountains clamping irons on the grizzly and blooding it with small dogs sacrificed to keep the bear in the mood.
If the grizzly was the symbol of California, then the symbol of Spain was destined to be its foe, two species that under normal circumstance would have never faced each other in the wild. Toward the pit would be led a Spanish Fighting Bull, that proud trot and deep black hide, its horns decorated with garlands of flowers and always—somewhat baffling—the home favorite.
Lassoing a Bear, A.F. Harmer, Ventura County, California, c.1855. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARIES/ CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY/ CC BY 3.0
The bear and bull fight was the main event, with an undercard of cockfighting and dogfighting to whet the crowd’s appetite for death. But then there would be other activities on the periphery, strange contests that usually involved a display of horsemanship, sharpshooting, or lasso work, anything to prove to the churchgoers that you had the right stuff. Of course there would be the requisite horse racing, but there were also other peculiar feats such as “to place on the ground a rawhide, and riding at full speed suddenly rein in the horses the moment his fore-feet struck the hide,” a prototypical driver’s test of sorts.
A more amusing form of horsemanship would be to bury a rooster in the dirt up to its neck, and, as California Pastoral says, “at a signal a horseman would start at full speed from a distance of about sixty yards, and if by dexterous swoop he could take the bird by the head, he was loudly applauded.” But if the rider failed, “he was greeted with derisive laughter, and was sometimes unhorsed with violence, or dragged in the dust at the risk of breaking his limbs or neck.”
An image from The San Francisco Call, 15 January, 1911. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Finally the moment would arrive. The bear and the bull, secured with shackles and ropes, would be led into the pit by shortcoat and sash-wearing caballeros—gentlemen of high standing in the town. The bull and bear would be tied together by a long length of rope, but short enough to keep the two gladiators in each other’s company. By now the crowd would be in frenzy, the smell of grilled meat in the air and the swilling of spirits from black bottles. As the crowd pressed forward, baying for the release of the beasts, an officiator would climb to his position on the raised platform, women and children behind him, and fire a pepperbox pistol in the air to start the contest.
At the outset, the bear would usually hang back, taking a defensive posture on its hind legs, while the bull was often the first to attack, charging with head down and horns lethal. It was generally understood by eyewitness accounts that the bear held the advantage in the fray. While the bull had a deadly lunge, the bear could parry the advance and grab the bull by the head, sinking its teeth into the bull’s neck, or on one account, biting the bull’s tongue, which would have undoubtedly released a crowd-pleasing bellow. At such times the vaqueros would jump in and break up the fight to save the bull and prolong the drama. “I was present,” stated a spectator named Arnaz in the pages of California Pastoral, “when a bear killed three bulls.” Often a single grizzly would fight many bulls consecutively until the home team won. “Sometimes the bull came off victorious, and at other times the bear, the result depending somewhat on the ages of the beasts.”
A Vaquero roping cattle, California, c. 1830s. PUBLIC DOMAIN
www.google.com/amp/s/www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bull-and-bear-fights-california.amp
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:06:47 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:09:09 GMT -5
MONARCH, AS FAR AS KNOWN, THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF A LIVE CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY:MOCHARCH
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:15:47 GMT -5
Monarch the Grizzly Bear
Monarch was one of the last Ursus arctos californicus, a now-extinct grizzly bear subspecies.
Monarch—a beloved piece of Academy history—was one of the last Ursus arctos californicus, a now-extinct grizzly bear subspecies. His role in California history began as an 1889 publicity stunt, when he was captured in Ventura County by order of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Named for a Hearst newspaper tagline (“Monarch of the Dailies”), the 1,100-pound bear’s life from then on was not a happy one. He spent his remaining 22 years in captivity—on display for thousands of Californians in Woodward Gardens, Golden Gate Park, and the San Francisco Zoo—while the remaining California grizzlies were being hunted to extinction.
Joseph Grinnell, director and cofounder of the University of California’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, was among those who saw Monarch during those years. After the bear’s death in 1911, Grinnell acquired Monarch’s remains for research and documentation, later donating the mounted specimen to the Academy. Monarch was last seen on public display from 2010 to 2012 as part of Altered State: Climate and Change—an exhibit that explored, among other things, the role humans have played in the current mass extinction.
Range and Conservation Status
Though they once ranged from Alaska all the way down to Mexico, and from California to the Great Plains, grizzlies are endangered today, found only in five small pockets in Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, with some healthier populations existing in the wilds of Alaska and western Canada. There’s more than one kind of grizzly (genetic testing continues to refine our understanding of the group), but only an estimated 1,400 to 1,700 of the bears themselves survive in the continental United States.
What's in a Name
While exploring the early 1800s American West, a stunned Lewis and Clark expedition described being chased, treed, and attacked by enormous bears they later referred to as “ferocious tyrants of the American woods.” Taking a cue from that reputation, scientists of the day assigned the grizzly the taxonomic label Ursus arctos horribilis, or “horrible bear.” The grizzly’s nickname, meanwhile, has less dramatic origins—it’s a nod to the “grizzled” appearance of the bear’s gray-tipped coat.
www.calacademy.org/explore-science/monarch-the-grizzly-bear?amp
MONARCH'S OWN SITE:
www.monarchbear.org/monarch/
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:29:56 GMT -5
THE GRIZZLY HAS ALMOST ALWAYS BEEN THE DOMINANT CREATURE IN EACH LANDSCAPE IT HAS INHABITED.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:43:04 GMT -5
BOOK CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY
THE GRIZZLY IS THE LARGEST OF THE CARNIVORA AND ONE OF THE MOST FORMIDABLE ANIMALS IN THE WORLD. HIS STRENGTH IS TREMENDOUS, BEING ABLE TO KNOCK DOWN A BULL OR CARRY OFF A HORSE. IT IS DIFFICULT TO KILL HIM, AND EVEN WHEN PIERCED TO THE HEART WITH A RIFLE BALL, HE OFTEN LIVES FOR SOME TIME.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:44:12 GMT -5
WHEN IN SEARCH OF ANIMAL FOOD TO SATISFY ITS HUNGER, THE BEAR WOULD STRIKE DOWN ANY LARGE BEAST. AND IN A FIGHTING RING, IT WAS A SAVAGE CONTENDER AGAINST A WILD BULL.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:45:26 GMT -5
THE GRIZZLY IS EXCEPTIONALLY EXPERT AND AGILE WITH HIS PAWS, WITH EITHER FORE PAW HE CAN STRIKE LIKE A SLEDGE HAMMER OR LIFT A HEAVYWEIGHT. HE BOXES OR STRIKES WITH LIGHTING LIKE RAPIDITY.
”THE QUICKNESS OF A WOUNDED GRIZZLY IN CLOSING WITH HIS OPPONENT WAS TESTIFIED BY MANY CALIFORNIA HUNTERS”
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:49:11 GMT -5
HABITATS OF THE CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:57:39 GMT -5
FEET AND CLAWS OF CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY. MUSEUM SPECIMENS.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 10:58:41 GMT -5
SKULLS OF CALIFORNIA BEARS
ABOVE-CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY BELOW-CALIFORNIA BLACK BEAR
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 11:01:00 GMT -5
SKELETON OF A CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 11:01:49 GMT -5
NATIVE BORN DESCENDANTS. SAN FRANCISCO ZOO.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 11:02:59 GMT -5
HUNTING METHODS OF CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY:
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 11:20:04 GMT -5
GRIZZLY ADAMS AND HIS TRAINED GRIZZLY HUNTING COMPANION BEN FRANKLIN:
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 11:21:08 GMT -5
SAMSON, 1500 LB CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY.
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Post by Gorilla king on Jul 18, 2021 11:22:21 GMT -5
THE BEAR CHARGED THE BULL AND BROKE ITS NECK.
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