California s grizzly bears live on in new museum exhibit
By Eric Kurhi
ekurhi@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 09/08/2009 12:00:00 AM PDT
HAYWARD — There's a bit of irony in the fact that a grizzly bear is the centerpiece of the California state flag. The last wild specimen in the state was shot dead near Fresno in 1922.
"We killed them off, yet there's all this stuff that still exists," said Diane Curry, curator of the Hayward Area Historical Society Museum. "It's a weird relationship."
The museum's latest exhibit explores that relationship, with a history of how the bear has been viewed here through the years. "Bear in Mind — the Story of the California Grizzly" provides the bear's biological basics and some hands-on exhibits, including an opportunity to scrutinize bear scat (fake, of course) for clues about what the animal has dined on.
Most of the exhibit is kid-friendly, and the museum provides a guide with suggestions for young visitors.
Curry said many people don't realize that grizzlies have long been extinct in California.
"A lot of people will see a bear, like in Yosemite, and think that because they're in California, it's a grizzly," Curry said. "But it's not. It's a black bear."
The exhibit outlines the differences between the two.
Grizzlies can rise to 9 feet tall — that's a yard over the black bear. They can weigh up to 850 pounds, more than twice as much. And they have a telltale hump on the shoulders and fur with gray tips, a "grizzled" look — hence the name. Their claws are bigger, well-suited for digging,
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not climbing trees.
And as far as bears go, grizzlies always have had the bad reputation.
That was part of the downfall, according to the exhibit.
Shooting them was considered both sporting and beneficial, and bounties were offered for dead bears. Ranchers put strychnine in slain livestock, knowing the culprits would be back for seconds. Captured bears often were used for entertainment, and a blood sport known as a "bear and bull fight" did not disappoint spectators who wanted to see just that.
It didn't take long for extinction within California. Scientists say a state population of 10,000 bears — the densest concentration on the continent — was eliminated in just more than a half-century.
The last one in this area was slain near Santa Cruz in 1880.
"They were once everywhere in the state, from the foothills to the bay," Curry said. "Now, the biggest population of them by far is in Russia."
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