California Grizzly Bear, disappeared for 100 years, could prosper if he is brought back

Grizzlis are turned off in California but always appear wherever you look.

The golden bruins wear the state flag and the seal, live in a caricatured effigy as university mascots and roll from the tip of our language in place like grizzly dishes and Big Bear lake.

But what happens if Ursine’s real agreement could be brought back?

A new study indicates that they can be – around 1,180 of them – and the mountains of southern California are among the main potential habitats for APEX predators. If they should Be is a question for 40 million Californians and their decision -makers.

The official animal of the State inspires fear and has a cultural meaning for the tribes, and the researchers note that they represent a low statistical danger. But some fauna officials claim that the reintroduction of grizzly greeks – who can weigh up to 1,000 pounds and operate 35 mph for short gusts – would result in an increase in conflicts between humans and bears. It is estimated that 60,000 black bear roam the state, and material damage, burglaries and the first confirmed death linked to Bruins have made the headlines in recent years.

“The recovery of grizzly ones in California is a choice,” said Alex Mcinturff, study co-publisher and deputy chief of the research unit on fish and Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife’s Washington Washington. “We can choose to do so by making the necessary investments and by creating the necessary partnerships to make it possible. There is a habitat available. A certain number of questions can be answered. But it is a choice.”

California housed up to 10,000 bears before the gold rush in 1848, but their fortune quickly became.

The loss of habitat fueled by man has resulted in their number, but their ultimate disappearance came to the hands of hunters and trappers.

In 1916, the latest known grizzlyman wandering in southern California was shot in the Sunland region in Los Angeles and became well known as Sunland Grizzly.

A few years later, in the spring of 1924, the latest Grizzly known to California was spotted in Sequoia National Park.

Although they are unlikely to return to the state by themselves, “(a) the well-planned, well-managed and well-managed reintroduction and recovery program could, however, probably establish a sustainable grizzly population in one or more recovery areas in several decades,” the study said on Tuesday.

Behind the study is the Grizzly Alliance Network, a group of collaborators who include researchers, tribal chiefs and fauna defenders who work to bring the Bears to the State.

Extending a little more than 200 pages, the report brings together new and existing research to explore where in the state, bears could live and how much could live in these fields, as well as economic effects, safety considerations and other dimensions. The reintroduction of bears would need to move them from a place where they are currently living, such as Yellowstone National Park in California.

Using several models of adequacy of the habitat, the study identifies three potential regions where bears could live: in the transverse beaches which extend from the coast to the desert in southern California (by emphasizing the large protected areas of the national forest of Los Padres); The whole Sierra Nevada (by emphasizing the southern part of the range); and the northwest forest (which includes the Klamath mountains, the Alps Trinity and other neighboring chains in the northwest corner of the state).

The study reports that the regions contain large expanses of protected and high quality habitat, but do not argue that all or part is really used.

Assuming that bears could not live outside the designated regions, the study estimates that California could house approximately 1,183 grizzles: 115 in the transverse beaches, 832 in the Sierra Nevada and 236 in the northwest forest.

Two young brothers and sisters Grizzly Bear fight early in the morning along Pelican Creek in Yellowstone National Park.

(Jonathan Newton / Getty Images)

The researchers evaluated a “well -resourced” recovery program up to $ 3 million a year for the first decade. It represents 0.4% of the California budget Department of Fish and Wildlife, based on figures for 2024-2025, according to the study.

Grizzlies often invoke fear – as an animal standing 8 feet high with prodigious claws – and human security is often a major concern during the discussion on the recovery of grizzly ones. But the study indicates that the statistical risk that animals have to humans are “extremely small”. Among the average deaths estimated by fauna each year in the United States, 96% arise from car collisions with the deer, reports the study.

However, the risk is not zero. In North America, there are around 1.5 deaths associated with bears each year, researchers said.

A separate 2019 study examining the brown bear (a group that includes Grizzly) Human attacks In a large part of their world range between 2000 and 2015, attacks have increased considerably over time.

The researchers said that the increase was probably due to several factors, including the growth of bear and human populations, leading to an increase in overlapping habitat. They also noted that an increasing number of people recreate in the Bears Live regions.

Grizzlis also provide advantages, including the dispersion of seeds and airy soil. In greater numbers, they can keep other species such as black bears in check.

Peter Tira, spokesperson for California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that the State did not have the resources and would not be able to prioritize the reintroduction of grizzly ones, given all its existing responsibilities.

California, he said, no longer offers abundant salmon reserves which, according to bears, have once nourished or opportunities to walk on the coast now very developed. Given their tendency to go widely, he said that there was no reason to assume that they will remain in distant areas.

“The reintroduction of potentially grizzly grizzlymen in places where people live, recreate and increase cattle would probably require more in -depth management of human life conflicts, which is already extremely difficult with animal species that are here – especially mountain lions, wolves, black bears and coyotes,” said Tira in a press release.

Bruce McLellan, a retired research ecologist of the Grizzlis and author of “Grizzly Bear Science and the Art of A Wilderness Life”, admits that he initially thought that the idea of ​​reintroducing the grizzly guys in California was crazy – partly because of the number of people who live in the state. But a large part of the population is blocked in the lower half of the state, it realized more closely.

In British Columbia, where McLellan lives, the southern part of the province is home to most of its 5 million people – and this region now supports hundreds of grizzly ones while the population has rebounded over time. People have largely acclimatized to their presence, he said.

“It makes me think that it is certainly biologically possible to have grizzly ones in these corners from California,” he said.

Of course, he said, it would bring conflicts-a strange bear would move away from the mountains and tear someone’s chickens; A strange bear should be shot – but there are effective ways to manage conflicts. People should be “aware” and potentially installing electric fences, he said.

Grizzlies are also “very adaptable”, he said, noting that they do not need salmon or access to the beach without obstacle to survive.

“Many people where I live like to see grizzles in their courtyard,” said McLellan. “I love him.”

However, even if the Californians decided that they wanted bears, he thinks that the United States does not have an adequate process to get there.

McLellan participated in efforts to restore the Grizzlis in the North Cascades of Washington State and in the Selway-Bitterot Wilderness region in Montana and Idaho. However, decades of spending money and energy have not concluded them, he said.

“I was discouraged to have been involved with both,” he said.

Peter Alagona, professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara who led the study, however, considers a Grizzly return to California as a means of dispeling these ideas.

“I think that would turn on a fire under people to show that we can do things that we did not think we could do,” said Alagona, who founded California Grizzly Research Network in 2016.

Alagona also said that this would serve as a form of restorative justice.

In a preface to the study, Octavio Escobedo III, President of the Indian Tribu Tejon tribe, highlights what he describes as “parallel paths” forcibly by the Amerindians and the grizzly ones subjected to ideologies sanctioned by the State which “lead the relentless persecution of indigent and grizzly people.”

The Tejon tribe, he writes, is one of the hundreds of indigenous nations who value and venerate the grizzly ones, and direct efforts to preserve and coexist with the species.

Mcinturff, the federal employee, who is also an associate professor at the University of Washington, said that the new study marks a turning point in the discussion by providing compilation of the best available sciences.

“There were a lot of speculation, a lot of hypotheses, and now we have a set of research that we can examine to speak in a lit manner of this subject,” he said.

At one point, Alagona intends to present the results of the study to the California Fish and Game Commission, which establishes the fauna policy for the state.

Last year, the Commission and the State Senate adopted resolutions recognizing the anniversary of the centenary of the extirpation of California Grizzly, the Senate declaring 2024 “The year of the Grizzlis”.

This month marks the 101st anniversary.