Grizzlies / North American brown bears

[BorneanTiger]

Defining a 'grizzly' as a brown bear native to North America, a number of forms of grizzlies used to be recognised, though due to recent genetic tests, the number of 'subspecies' or 'species' have been reduced. 2 forms that I'd like to start with are the extinct Californian grizzly and Kodiak bear. The Kodiak bear is the largest extant brown bear, comparable in size to the polar bear, with a maximum recorded weight of about 2,200 lbs (998 kg).

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/84132877...579/?nic=1
   

YouTube:

Previously, as I mentioned earlier, there was another massive brown bear that could also rival a polar bear with a maximum recorded weight of about 2,200 pounds (998 kg), that is the Californian grizzly, which apparently got extinct in 1924, due to conflict with humans over space or cattle (which were taken as prey).

Stuffed Californian grizzly at Valley Center History Museum (the town used to be called "Bear Valley"): https://www.vchistory.org/exhibits/grizzly-bear/, https://www.yelp.com/biz/valley-center-h...ley-center
   
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[BorneanTiger]

I've heard of Kermode bears (American black bears with white or light fur), but a grizzly with white fur?

Denali National Park, Alaska; credit: Becky Matsubara: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beckymatsu...916250988/

*This image is copyright of its original author

Stuffed female on exhibit at the entrance to the Museum of Westward Expansion: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffnps/5244387715/

*This image is copyright of its original author

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[BorneanTiger]

During the salmon run at Fish Creek in Douglas Island near Hyder in southeast Alaska, near the border with the Canadian province of British Columbia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...a_0858.jpg

*This image is copyright of its original author

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[BorneanTiger]

@Grizzlybear @GrizzlyClaws @GreenGrolar @Styx38 @brotherbear A partly white cub in British Columbia, credit: Charles J. Sharp

*This image is copyright of its original author

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[GrizzlyClaws]

(10-30-2019, 11:01 AM)BorneanTiger Wrote: @Grizzlybear @GrizzlyClaws @GreenGrolar @Styx38 @brotherbear A partly white cub in British Columbia, credit: Charles J. Sharp

*This image is copyright of its original author

Genetically speaking, these Grizzly bears are more closely to the Polar bear than any other modern Brown bear populations. Reply

[BorneanTiger]

Apart from the Californian grizzly, 2 other populations of grizzlies also became extinct, or at least invisible from our sight: the Mexican grizzly and the Ungava or Labrador grizzly.

Mexican grizzlies at the Field Columbian Museum, 1919. From: “The grizzly, our greatest wild animal” by Enos Abijah Mills (1870–1922): http://www.bearconservation.org.uk/mexic...y-extinct/
   

Starting with the Mexican grizzly, it was formerly given the scientific name Ursus arctos nelsoni by Clinton Hart Merriam in 1914. It was smaller than the brown bears of the northern USA and Canada. Male bears weighed up to around 315 kgs (694.46 lbs), with females being smaller. Length was around 180 cms (5.91 ft). Colour varied from pale buff-yellow to a grizzled grey or white, which would appear silver in bright sunlight, hence the bear’s Mexican name of “el oso plateado” (the silver bear). It was found in the northern territories of Mexico, particularly in the northern savannah and mountain forests, and northwards into New Mexico and Arizona in the USA. As for the bears of Baja California, they are treated as being of the Californian population of grizzlies: https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc...ia&f=false

Historic grizzly range c. 1850 (light green), remaining range c. 1920 (dark green), & approximate dates of local extirpations, where known. Probable extent of Mexican grizzly range edged in red. Credit: D. Mattson, unpublished data, edging Bear Conservation.
   

It inhabited temperate grasslands and mountain pine forests, besides being adapted to survive the arid conditions of the Sonoran Desert and canyonlands. It probably had a natural lifespan of around 25 years in the wild. In common with other brown bears, the Mexican grizzly was an omnivore eating plants, fruits, insects, small mammals and carrion. It seems unlikely that the bears would have hibernated, although they may have spent some time in winter dens. Females produced one to 3 cubs, which would remain with them for around 2 ½ years, during which the mother would not become pregnant again. Except during mating, and for mothers with cubs, the bears were solitary. With the expansion of cattle farming within the Mexican brown bear’s range, the animals increasingly came to be considered by cattle farmers as pests, and were thus trapped, shot and poisoned. The situation deteriorated rapidly in the early 20th century, and the population was rare by the 1930s. Ultimately, their range was reduced to the isolated mountains of Cerro Campano, Santa Clara and Sierra del Nido, and by 1960, it was believed that only 30 bears or less remained. Although the bears were protected, illegal hunting and persecution continued. By 1969, probably sooner, the population was apparently extinct. From time to time, there have been rumoured sightings of lone animals, and in 1980, Trevino & Jonkel published a report indicating that grizzly bears might still be present in Mexico, see: http://wildsonora.com/sites/default/file...n-1976.pdf, http://www.bearconservation.org.uk/Do%20...Jonkel.pdf 

There have been no further substantiated sightings of Mexican grizzlies. Reply

[BorneanTiger]

(11-09-2019, 10:38 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: Apart from the Californian grizzly, 2 other populations of grizzlies also became extinct, or at least invisible from our sight: the Mexican grizzly and the Ungava or Labrador grizzly.

Mexican grizzlies at the Field Columbian Museum, 1919. From: “The grizzly, our greatest wild animal” by Enos Abijah Mills (1870–1922): http://www.bearconservation.org.uk/mexic...y-extinct/

*This image is copyright of its original author

Starting with the Mexican grizzly, it was formerly given the scientific name Ursus arctos nelsoni by Clinton Hart Merriam in 1914. It was smaller than the brown bears of the northern USA and Canada. Male bears weighed up to around 315 kgs (694.46 lbs), with females being smaller. Length was around 180 cms (5.91 ft). Colour varied from pale buff-yellow to a grizzled grey or white, which would appear silver in bright sunlight, hence the bear’s Mexican name of “el oso plateado” (the silver bear). It was found in the northern territories of Mexico, particularly in the northern savannah and mountain forests, and northwards into New Mexico and Arizona in the USA. As for the bears of Baja California, they are treated as being of the Californian population of grizzlies: https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc...ia&f=false

Historic grizzly range c. 1850 (light green), remaining range c. 1920 (dark green), & approximate dates of local extirpations, where known. Probable extent of Mexican grizzly range edged in red. Credit: D. Mattson, unpublished data, edging Bear Conservation.

*This image is copyright of its original author

It inhabited temperate grasslands and mountain pine forests, besides being adapted to survive the arid conditions of the Sonoran Desert and canyonlands. It probably had a natural lifespan of around 25 years in the wild. In common with other brown bears, the Mexican grizzly was an omnivore eating plants, fruits, insects, small mammals and carrion. It seems unlikely that the bears would have hibernated, although they may have spent some time in winter dens. Females produced one to 3 cubs, which would remain with them for around 2 ½ years, during which the mother would not become pregnant again. Except during mating, and for mothers with cubs, the bears were solitary. With the expansion of cattle farming within the Mexican brown bear’s range, the animals increasingly came to be considered by cattle farmers as pests, and were thus trapped, shot and poisoned. The situation deteriorated rapidly in the early 20th century, and the population was rare by the 1930s. Ultimately, their range was reduced to the isolated mountains of Cerro Campano, Santa Clara and Sierra del Nido, and by 1960, it was believed that only 30 bears or less remained. Although the bears were protected, illegal hunting and persecution continued. By 1969, probably sooner, the population was apparently extinct. From time to time, there have been rumoured sightings of lone animals, and in 1980, Trevino & Jonkel published a report indicating that grizzly bears might still be present in Mexico, see: http://wildsonora.com/sites/default/file...n-1976.pdf, http://www.bearconservation.org.uk/Do%20...Jonkel.pdf 

There have been no further substantiated sightings of Mexican grizzlies.

Considering that extant grizzlies in Canada would be west of Hudson Bay, the Ungava-Labrador grizzly (formerly Ursus arctos ungavæsis) inhabited a rather unusual region that would be known for black or polar bears, rather than grizzlies, that is the Ungava Peninsula, the northern part of the Labrador Peninsula (which includes the region of Labrador, which is part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the regions of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord, and Nord-du-Québec, which are in the province of Quebec), which is east of the bay: https://books.google.com/books?id=BFMpvg...edir_esc=y, http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic29-4-194.pdf, http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic60-1-7.pdf, https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article...m=fulltext 

Map of the Ungava Peninsula by Maproom, with Hudson Bay being the large body of water to the west: 

*This image is copyright of its original author

Map of the Labrador Peninsula, divided between the regions of Québec and Labrador, by Joseph B~commonswiki: 

The probable former range of the Ungava-Labrador grizzly, by Loring and Spiess: 
   

The first photographic evidence of bears in Labrador dates to 1910. American ethnologist and northern explorer William Brooks Cabot made several visits to the Labrador region between 1899 and 1925, studying the Innu people. While on a canoeing expedition with Innu hunters, Cabot came upon and photographed a bear skull mounted on a pole. Upon examination of this photograph, by comparing it to other bear skulls, Harvard anthropologists Arthur Spiess and Stephen Loring concluded in 2007 that the skull belonged to a small brown bear. However, that was in 2007. The past existence of the grizzly in the area of Labrador and Quebec was scientifically proven in the summer of 1975, when anthropologist Steven Cox from Harvard University discovered a skull while excavating an Inuit midden on Okak Island in Labrador (and thus is it also known as the "Okak grizzly"). By studying wear on the molars, Cox determined that the skull belonged to a full-grown but small female grizzly bear. The discovery of more bones of bears in the area is unlikely, due to the Innu practice of consuming, utilizing or otherwise disposing of every part of hunted animals: http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic29-4-194.pdf, http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic60-1-7.pdf 

Views of the Okak skull discovered by Cox in 1975: http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arct...pdf#page=2
   

The bear's skull in Kaiaukuapiskasts (WBC1910.161) seen by Cabot in 1910, and ascertained to belong to a grizzly by Spiess and Loring in 2007. Collection of William Brooks Cabot, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution: http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arct...pdf#page=4
   

Prior to this discovery, biologists typically discounted the idea that a brown bear had once roamed northern Quebec. Various reports of brown bears from 1900 to 1950 were written off as color morphs of the more common American black bear (particularly the cinnamon bear): http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic29-4-194.pdf, https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article...m=fulltext 

One of the earliest pieces of evidence supporting the existence of a brown bear in Labrador is a map of the region drawn in 1550 by French cartographer Pierre Desceliers, which depicts three bears on the coast. One bear is white and is certainly a polar bear, while the other two are brown. In the late 1700s, a trader in the area of Labrador, George Cartwright, wrote in his journal of a bear with markings consistent to those of young grizzly bears: "The beasts, are bears both black and white (of the latter I am told there are two kinds, one of which have a white ring around their necks... "They are very ferocious,"..." https://books.google.com/books?id=BFMpvg...edir_esc=y, https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc...ar&f=false

It is not known exactly when the Ungava brown bear died out, but reports of their sightings slowly declined throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and the population was most likely extinct by the latter part of the 20th century, at least partly due to persecution by fur trappers. In fact, fur trappers' reports from local Moravian mission posts indicate that brown bear pelts were regularly recorded from the 1830s to the 1850's: http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic29-4-194.pdf, https://books.google.com/books?id=BFMpvg...edir_esc=y, https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article...m=fulltext Reply

[BorneanTiger]

Grizzly moves a bison carcass in Yellowstone: 

Bears and wolves feeding together in Yellowstone: 

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[BorneanTiger]

Is this bear in Yukon a grizzly–black bear hybrid? https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-bear-sp...6#pid94956 Reply

[Sully]

Co-Existing with Iconic Species Among Topics for MT Grizzly Council

MISSOULA, Mont. – The Grizzly Bear Advisory Council continues to discuss plans for managing the iconic species, with a meeting scheduled for next week.



Convened by Gov. Steve Bullock, the council's goal is to create recommendations for how to conserve and manage grizzlies in Montana.



November's meeting was informational, concerning the species distribution and possible connectivity of populations.



Michele Dieterich is a retired teacher and a member of the 18-member council, living in the Bitterroot. She says bears are beginning to trickle in and wants the region to raise its awareness of the species to alleviate fears.



"I believe that it's very possible to co-exist with grizzly bears, but you need to lay that groundwork and teach people how to reduce attractants and how the bears work and how to be careful around the bears," she states.



There are two separate grizzly populations in Montana, with about 700 animals near Yellowstone National Park and 1,000 near Glacier National Park.



Grizzlies still are protected under the Endangered Species Act, although some say they should be managed by the state.



The council is holding another informational meeting Dec. 4 and 5 in Missoula on conflict avoidance.



Erin Edge, a council member and Rockies and Plains representative with the group Defenders of Wildlife, says it's important to assist communities and their unique needs as grizzlies expand in population. That could look like implementing a sanitation program or just outreach and education.



"Social acceptance is going to be variable depending on where we're at and I think that we need to identify what those issues may be and those may be localized,” she states. “So an issue that is a big concern in one area may not be as much of a concern in another area."



Bonnie Rice, a senior representative with the Sierra Club's Our Wild America campaign, was at this month's meeting in Bozeman. She says the grizzly bear’s comeback from the brink of extinction is a success story that's still in the making.



She says the Yellowstone and Glacier populations should be connected not just genetically, but demographically as well.



Rice adds that while management largely happens in Montana, people around the country want to see the bears thrive.


"There's a real national interest in grizzly bear recovery, and so I think it's up to members of the public – and hopefully some of the council members, at least – to keep raising that," she states.

https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2019-11-25/endangered-species-and-wildlife/co-existing-with-iconic-species-among-topics-for-mt-grizzly-council/a68398-1 Reply

[BorneanTiger]

Alaska:

Katmai National Park:

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[BorneanTiger]

Grizzlies fighting over a female:

Kodiak Island:

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[Spalea]

Ronan Donovan: " A large male grizzly bear crosses in front of a remote camera after inspecting the remains of a bull elk carcass. This is the bull elk that kicked and killed the wolf in the previous post. As the data shows, 15% of natural wolf mortality in Yellowstone is caused by elk. Judging by the elk's antlers, this was a very large old bull. Still, this bull clearly put up a serious fight against 16 wolves, ultimately killing the pack's alpha male wolf - often the most experienced.
The battle for survival unfolds everyday in Yellowstone, this is just one story that's been documented. Think of the hundreds of others that we'll never know. "

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[Spalea]

Ronan Donovan: " Hear a first hand account of what it's like to live with grizzlies in your backyard, literally. This is the story of one man's run in with a sow grizzly and her cubs. I greatly respect Nic Patrick for many reasons and I hope you all see some of those reasons in this video. Link in my profile - please share.
I also have to add that this is my FIRST @natgeo publication, so I'm trying to contain my excitement and enthusiasm. "

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[Spalea]

Ronan Donovan: " t's exciting to finally be able to share some more images from the year long National Geographic Magazine project dedicated entirely to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. "

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