Bears as Predators ~

[brotherbear]

California Grizzly by Tracy L. Storer and Lloyd P. Tevis Jr. - 1955.
One peculiarity of fights that entertained the miners is that, in contrast to most of the battles of earlier times, the bull usually was the victor, as well as being the favorite of the crowd. Newspaper accounts frequently carried such statements as "Bruin had little desire to fight, finally waked up a little, and after an hour was taked away considerably gored" ( Alta California, Sept. 9, 1851 ). To make the contests more nearly equal, the horns were sometimes sawed off before the bulls went into battle. 
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. 
Meyer ( 1938 ), after observing fights in Saccramento, said that the bear was rarely the victor. Reply