Bears as Predators ~

[brotherbear]

California Grizzly by Tracy I. Storer and Lloyd P. Tevis, Jr.

Seemingly, then, the bears used during the American period often were inferior specimens endowed with less spirit and ferocity than the giants that had fought in Spanish and Mexican days. Very likely the miners shot the larger bears with rifles and trapped mainly small ones for the fights - possibly even black bears - whereas the Spanish vaqueros had roped the biggest and toughest grizzlies they could find.

To make the contests more nearly equal, the horns were sometimes sawed off before the bulls went into battle.

Meyer ( 1938 : 237 ), after observing fights in Sacramento, said that the bear was rarely the victor.

The bull was soon thought to be a too powerful opponent for the king of the California forests and he was supplanted by a - donkey. A California longear, or several of these, were brought into the arena with the bear, and it was horrible to see the bear quench his blood-thirstiness on these weak creatures. Of course some rough kicks were directed at the bear's head but sometimes the angry bear bit the donkey's leg off.

Alfred T. Jackson, on February 2, 1851, at Nevada City saw a big poster which said there was going to be "a grand fight between a ferocious grizzly bear and the champion fighting jackass of the State." The bear proved to be a black, which, on approaching its opponent, received "a couple of thunderous kicks in the ribs." Whereupon the jackass returned to eating grass, and the bear went over the fence in two jumps and fled to the chaparral, scattering the crowd. ( Canfield, 1906 : 46 - 48. )

So great was the degradation of the fights that even tiny burros were pitted against bears: If the bear was a real grizzly, he always won, so far as I know, but the burro would worry him desperately for a long time. The bear would suffer terrific jolts on the jaw from the burro's heels, that would send him staggering back time and again. When the grizzly would finally get hold of his lowly but far from humble antagonist, the burro would bite and hang on with his teeth like a bulldog. I must say that I always considered a match like this unfair, brutal and barbarous. ( Bell, 1930 : 107 - 108. )

Finally, somebody with a perverted sense of humor conceived the idea of letting hundreds of city rats loose into a well-closed arena, where they tormented the grizzly to distraction by swarming over him and crawling under his fur. Viewing this loathsome spectacle, Meyer ( 1938 : 237 ) commented that bear-and-bull fights had "passed through all stages, from the heroic to the lowest and the Yankees mocked the dignity of the bear as they do that of a king." Reply