California Grizzlys

Calif. Hunter

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Dec 13, 2000
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Location
Apple Valley, CA, USA
An early settler in the Santa Clarita valley above the Los Angeles basin is on record as having shot a 2350 pound grizzly. I think his name was Jim Lang. That is a huge bear. The last California Grizzly was shot in Tulare County in 1922, I believe.

Just a little tidbit for you trivia nuts. ;)
 
My feelings are the Feds should bring back the Grizzlies to California like the wolf reintroduction to the Rockies. They could call it the California Grizzly Reintroduction Project. The first grizzly bears could be dropped off into one of our great Nat'l Parks: Yosemite! They would keep the black bears in check and would return everything back to "natural." :D All the arguements for the wolf's return could be used for the grizzlie's return, you agree? ;) MtnHtr
 
I'm all for it MH.

Any of you guys read the book "California Grizzly". I cant remember the numbers, but I do remember them saying they were the biggest brown bears of all time. Bigger than Kodiaks. That is unbelievable. What would have been wild would be to see them Gauchos rope them suckers. Wow.

Look that book up Cali Hunter, its a good one.
 
I read California Grizzlies. I guess californian had lots of BIG grizzlies. Now it just has lots of queers and smog, that progress ;).

The spanish conquestadors used to rope grizzlies and play them like a fish. Kind of like grizzly team roping. Once the griz was all played out they would tie the rope off to a tree and finish him.

There was a place in california they called the valley of 1,000 griz or something like that (i read it a long time ago). THe conquestador would butcher their cows in the mountains and from a high point in one valley with a lot of carcasses they could see dozens of bears.

The settlers would use set-guns consisting of a shotgun with a string on the trigger and the barrel pointed right where the bears head would be when he came into the bait.

and thats all i have to say about that,
 
And of course they had the famous "Bear and Bull" fights. Of course, the bear usually won, but there were apparently some long bouts between big wild bulls and the bears. The vaqueros would catch the bears by lassoing them like posted above.


I think they ought to bring the grizzlies back to Angeles and San Bernardino National Forests right above LA, especially where the mountain bikers and granola crowd like to ride or hike. Maybe put a few right in MacArthur Park in LA so they can keep the dopers and gangbangers in check. The best place, though, would be right in the Capitol Building in Sacramento during a session of the State Assembly...
 
:D ;) :D ;)


Right on!
 
CH!!!!
That was going to be what I was going to say...They should also re-introduce these bears into the National parks and forests that are more heavily used by these same people...Maybe into some of the larger city parks would do also!!!! :D
 
caly hunter do you have something that i can read about this 2300 lb bear because in all of my studies of animals (i love to learn about them(future job zooligist) the laregest grizzly bear ever recorded was around the 1700 pound mark, Coastal brown bears have reached that weight but are onl;y located in alaska and northwestern canada so any information supporting this would be much appreciated.


And no i am not calling you a liar
 
I got the weight from a book of California trivia. The California bears, like the Merriam elk of Arizona and New Mexico, were the largest of their sub-species or species. The theory was that mild weather and abundant food supplies led to large size. I will see what else I can find out, but probably a web search would turn up some more info.
 
allright but i am thinking that they are just a sub speicies of coastal brown bear and not grizzly bear because yeah i search stuff like that so i will know as much as i can
 
Many biologists now consider grizzly bears and brown bears as the same species. Here is one website, talking about the last California grizzly killed on the Oregon border on April 10, 1890. He was called "Reel-Foot," was over 12 feet tall, measured 22 inches from nose tip to top of his head, 14 inches between the ears and was over 2000 pounds. They removedd almost a quart of lead from him from old wounds. The easy pickings of cattle and sheep contributed to their large size - prior to wide-scale ranching, their weight seemed to be more in line with "normal" grizzlies.

http://www.nwbiggame.com/buzz/cal-grizzly/cal-grizzly.html
 
Allright i believe you know even though i think it is still a coastal brown bear not a grizzly but i give you credit for you research, and i will let you win this one but one of these days i will get you
 
mini-m---the CA grizz, inland/mtn grizz and coastal brown bear are all grizzlys---the diff in size is due to the ease and abundance of food available for the coastal brownie(salmon)--the inland/mtn grizz have to work a lot more for their meals thus their size differences, this is probqably what led to some big bears here in CA like stated previously----

at one time there was thought that the coastal brownie and the inland/mtn were different, but they aren't, if my memory serves me right...

I am fairly sure that one of the last CA grizz's is stuffed in a museum right here in SF about 7 blocks from where I live--I will check it out and let you know--I don't think it weighed 2k though, I also think they have another grizz and cub stuffed there and the sow couldn't have been more than 400 pounds if that--anyway I'll let you know what I find out.....chris
 
William Randolph Hearst had a California Grizzly named Monarch that he donated to Golden Gate Park, and it was stuffed when it died in 1911. It was the model for the one on the all the official stuff, I believe. It also was not that huge. It is on display in San Francisco at the California Academy of Science. His decendents are still at the SFO Zoo supposedly!

See: http://www.sfpix.com/park/history/monarch/
 
Ca,Hunter--that's him, ol' Monarch, that's up the street--- not to sure about his descendants at the zoo-I've never heard that--plus I think there are no grizz at the zoo any longer as the last one died a couple of years ago....chris
 
Chris is right Mini moose, well mostly right. THere are 3 bears in N.A. The American Black bear, the Polar Bear and the Brown Bear. The California Griz would have been a brown bear, just like the Yellowstone Griz, or the Kodiak.
 
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