Bear in Mind vs. Bear in Reality; or Why So Many People Get So Much Wrong About Big, Toothy Animals

• In Event: Beyond Fear and Loathing: New Perspectives on Apex Predators

Abstract

On the eve of the Gold Rush in 1848, California contained as many as 10,000 grizzly bears, more than any current or future U.S. state other than Alaska. By 1924, just 75 years later, California’s grizzlies had been shot, trapped, and poisoned to extinction. The classic study of grizzlies in California was published in 1955, and then for six decades all went silent, with little scholarly research and only sporadic public interest, despite the grizzly’s prominent presence as the state’s official mascot. This changed in 2016, when a new interdisciplinary group came together to take a fresh look at the past and potential future of grizzly bears in California. This paper presents key findings from this work in six areas: the California’s grizzly’s evolutionary history, its diet, its size, the reasons for its decline, the possibility of its recovery, and even its name. Each of these six findings directly contradicts long-held assumptions about these animals, raising important questions about why people so often misunderstand big, toothy animals--and how their misunderstandings can shape relations between people and wildlife--sometimes with disastrous consequences for species, ecosystems, Indigenous cultures, and even conservation itself.

Author

• Peter S Alagona, UC Santa Barbara