Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/413

 CONSERVATION OF THE NATIVE FAUNA 407

Thb Blaok Beab

Our biggest living carnivore is the black bear. One subspecies is found in the Transition and Boreal zones of the coast mountains north of San Francisco Bay^ while the other^ the exact status of which remains to be elucidated, occupies the Sierra Nevada south to the vicinity of the Tehachapi Mountains.'^ Apparently the black bear has never been found either in the coast district south of San Francisco or in southern California.

Although constant persecution has resulted in considerable reduction in its numbers, the black bear has proved a much more resilient and adaptable species than the grizzly; and there are good grounds for the hope that with fair treatment it may be counted on as an important big game and fur-producing species for many years to come.

Thb Obizzly Beab

Beyond all question the group of her grizzly bears was the most vividly impressive portion of the native fauna of California. No less than six distinct forms are now recognized by Dr. C. Hart Merriam'^ as belonging to the fauna of California alone.

Let me briefly list them : Ursus hlamathensis is described from Kla- math river; Ursus colusvs is from the Sacramento Valley, the type skull coming, in all probability, from somewhere on the river between Colusa and Sacramento; the huge Ursvs caJifornicus, known by name longer than any of the others, is restricted to the Monterey region; from the historic old Fort Tejon, in the Tehachapi Mountains, comes Ursus caJi- fomicus ttdarensis, also found in certain ranges of southern California ; the smallest of them all, Ursus henshawi, comes from the southern Sierra Nevada; while the Trabuco Moimtain region of southern California was the home of the gigantic Ursus magister, the ^'. . . largest of known grizzlies, considerably larger than Ursus calif amicus of the Monterey region, and even than Ursus horribilis, the great bufEalo-killing grizzly of the plains (only equalled by the largest alexandrcB of Kenai peninsula).'*"

Bryant** records the fact that Bidwell, in Rogers's *' History of Colusa County,'* states that when the county was first settled it was not un- common to see thirty or forty grizzly bears in one day.

Hittell submits the following :

In early times grizzly bears were yerj plentiful all over the country and did great damage to the cattle and gardens of the first settlers. In 1799 the troops of Purisima made a regular campaign against the bears of that region.

SI Grinnell, Proc, Cal. Acad. Sci,, 4th 6er., 3, 1913, p. 284,; and G. H. Mer- riam, conversation.

i^Proe. Biol, 80c. Wash,, 27, 1914, pp. 173-196. »« Merriam, Troc, Biol. 800. Wash,, 27, 1914, p. 189. s« Calif. Fish and Game, 1, 1915, p. 96.

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