California grizzly bear

California grizzly bear
Specimen at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Specimen at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Extinct (1924) (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classificationEdit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species: U. arctos
Subspecies: U. a. horribilis
Population: California grizzly bear
Synonyms
List:
  • Ursus californicus
  • Ursus arctos californicus
  • Ursus horribilis californicus
  • colusus Merriam, 1914
  • henshawi Merriam, 1914
  • klamathensis Merriam, 1914
  • magister Merriam, 1914
  • mendocinensis Merriam, 1916
  • tularensis Merriam, 1914

The California grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis, formerly Ursus arctos californicus) is an extinct population of the brown bear,[3] generally known (together with other North American brown bear populations) as the grizzly bear. "Grizzly" could have meant "grizzled" – that is, with golden and grey tips of the hair – or "fear-inspiring" (as a phonetic spelling of "grisly").[4] Nonetheless, after careful study, naturalist George Ord formally classified it in 1815 – not for its hair, but for its character – as Ursus horribilis ("terrifying bear").[5] Genetically, North American brown bears are closely related;[6] in size and coloring, the California grizzly bear was much like the Kodiak bear of the southern coast of Alaska. The grizzly became a symbol of the Bear Flag Republic, a moniker that was attached to the short-lived attempt by a group of U.S. settlers to break away from Mexico in 1846. Later, this rebel flag became the basis for the state flag of California, and then California was known as the "Bear State".[7]

  1. ^ IUCN (February 2, 2016). "Ursus arctos: McLellan, B.N., Proctor, M.F., Huber, D. & Michel, S.: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T41688A121229971". doi:10.2305/iucn.uk.2017-3.rlts.t41688a121229971.en. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  2. ^ Merriam 1896, pp. 76–77
  3. ^ "Ursus arctos. NatureServe Explorer 2.0". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
  4. ^ Wright, William Henry (1909), The Grizzly Bear: The Narrative of a Hunter-naturalist, Historical, Scientific and Adventurous
  5. ^ Grisly indeed, Grizzly Island was aptly named". Daily Republic. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  6. ^ Miller, C.; Waits, L.; Joyce, P. (2006). "Phylogeography and mitochondrial diversity of extirpated brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations in the contiguous United States and Mexico". Mol Ecol. 15 (14): 4477–4485. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.03097.x. PMID 17107477. S2CID 7336900.
  7. ^ Storer, T.I.; Tevis, L.P. (1996). California Grizzly. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. pp. 335, 42–187. ISBN 978-0-520-20520-8. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012.

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