Bear Size ~

[brotherbear]

The book 'California Grizzly' tells of some huge grizzly bears of the Sierra Nevada. Monarch, possibly the last California grizzly to see the light of day, is mounted in a museum in San Francisco. Quoted from the book: In all, Monarch lived nearly twenty-two years in San Francisco and was a continuing attraction to thousands of visitors in Golden Gate Park. By May, 1911, he had become decrepit and was killed. His skin was mounted by Vernon Shephard, a San Francisco taxidermist, who used much of the skull in the preparation. The skeleton was buried but was later recovered, cleaned, and placed in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley ( no. 24537 ). Shephard, on January 11, 1912, gave from memory the following measurements of Monarch: weight, 1,127 pounds; tip of nose to end of tail, 7 ft. 4 in.; height at shoulder, 48 inches; pads of feet: front, 14 in. long by 7 in. wide; hind, 12 by 6 in.; girth of neck just behind ears, 46 in. ( Grinnell et. al., 1937 : 89-90 ). The mounted specimen, all too adequately stuffed in 1952 measured: total length, 7 ft. 8 1/2 in.; height at shoulders, 3 ft. 5 3/4 in.; longest foreclaw around outer curve, nearly 5 in.; length of hair on back, about 2 in.
The stuffed "Monarch" was exhibited in the Natural History Department of the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco for many years, then was relegated to storage behind the scenes. In October, 1953, the specimen was transferred to the California Academy of Sciences ( no. 10471 ). Thus, appropriately, the last captive California grizzly is in the keeping of the oldest scientific organization in the state. Reply