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Extinct California grizzly bears were n’t the giant , blood - athirst " hypercarnivores " homo made them out to be , new enquiry has found .
It turns out that the once - abundantgrizzly bearswere mostly vegetarian and only occasionally indulged in stock after European colonizers and American settlers began farming in California . adverse to popular belief at the time , these grizzlies also did n’t grow to atrocious proportion and rarely , if ever , tip the scales at the oftentimes - cited telephone number of 2,000 Pound ( 900 kg ) .
California grizzly bears (Ursus arctos californicus) were similar in size to grizzlies found in Yellowstone National Park and interior Alaska today.
The last reliable sighting of a California silver-tip bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) dates to 1924 , and the race of dark-brown bear belike went nonextant before long after . Historical sources systematically paint California grizzlies as murderous animal — but these phonograph record are more precise representations of prevailing attitudes toward wildlife at the time than they are of the bears themselves , according to a study published Wednesday ( Jan. 10 ) in the journalProceedings of the Royal Society B.
" By the time the California grizzly get going out , it had been featured in a immense archive of text file and images , " which propose the bears attacked people and decimated livestock , researcher wrote in the bailiwick . " While these affair were true in some path , it was certainly not the whole story , " moderate authorAlexis Mychajliw , an adjunct professor of biology and environmental subject field at Middlebury College in Vermont , told Live Science in an email .
farm mushroom across the State Department during the Spanish Missions and Mexican Rancho period , between 1769 and 1848 , driving grizzlies into quail pockets of habitat . The Gold Rush of 1849 , followed by California ’s admission as a U.S. state in 1850 , sparked waves of immigration that put further pressure on bear .
Historical accounts portrayed California grizzly bears as aggressive “hypercarnivores."
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For the study , the researchers measured the abundance of stable variation , or isotopes , of nitrogen and carbon in California Ursus arctos horribilis pelts and bones . Isotopesvary look on the food sourceand are contain into an brute ’s tissue via its diet , meaning they can reveal what the animate being ate .
The results indicated that grizzly bear were largely veggie both before and after the first Europeans come in the state in 1542 , which is consistent with the dieting of modern brown bears .
But California grizzlies more than double their substance pulmonary tuberculosis after the first settler arrived . Meat from livestock and raging terrestrial fauna shot up from 9 % of their dieting before 1542 to 26 % after Europeans define foot in California , according to the field of study . " The bear probably increased meat intake due to landscape painting changes coupled with the comer of a new beginning of protein — livestock , " Mychajliw said .
This dietary break was inflate in contemporary account , which encouraged widespread persecution of California grizzly bears and eventually led to their extinction , according to the cogitation .
Newspapers also wildly exaggerated the size of California grizzly . When the researchers measured skull and teeth from natural history collecting , they found the extinct bears were n’t any larger than grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos horribilis ) that live in North America today and the ordinary one probably weighed around 440 pounds ( 200 kilogram ) .
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Historical overestimates could be due to hunters targeting the large bears . " The bears reported in paper press clipping were often killed as trophies , as part of publicity stunts , or even sold for meat , " the investigator write in the study . " Therefore , there were both monetary and reputational incentives to both enamour the magnanimous animate being possible and to exaggerate the size and aggressiveness of captured animals . "
The researchers spotlight the pitiful story of Monarch , a California grizzly bear captured Frederick North of Pasadena in 1889 as part of a publishing stunt . confident that grizzlies were voracious meat - eaters , zookeepers feed Monarch a fat dieting of bleak beef , apples and biscuit , which caused the bear to become obese and make grow osteoarthritis . " When Monarch died he weigh 1,127 lbs ( 511.2 kilogram ) , more than twice the sizing of the average California grizzly in our sampling , " the researchers wrote .
