Grizzly bears are extinct in California, but they still appear everywhere.
The Golden Bruins stamp the flag and stamp of the state, live in cartoon effigy as university pets, and surround the tip of our tongue in names of places such as Grizzly and Big Bear Lake floors.
But what would happen if Ursine’s real treatment could be brought?
TO New study It indicates that approximately 1,180 of them can be, and the mountains of southern California are among the main potential habitat for apex predators. Yes shoulder Be is a question for 40 million Californians and their policy formulators.
The official state of the state inspires astonishment and has a cultural meaning for tribes, and the researchers point out that they represent a low statistical danger. But some wildlife officials say Grizzlies reintroduce, who can weigh up to 1,000 pounds and run 35 mph for short bursts, would lead to a greater conflict between humans and bears. It is estimated that 60,000 black bears roam the State and damage to property, robberies and The first confirmed fatality Linked to the Bruins has reached the headlines in recent years.
“The recovery of Grizzly bears in California is an election,” said Alex Mcinturff, Coeditor of the study and leader of the Assistant Unit of the Washing and Washington Fishing and Wildlife Unit of Washington Washington Survey of the United States. choice”.
A brown is located on a puppy in the Grand Teton National Park.
(C. Adams / Grand Teton National Park / AP)
California was home to so many 10,000 before the gold fever in 1848, but his fortune turned quickly.
The loss of habitat fed by humans reduced its number, but its final disappearance reached the hands of hunters and hunters.
In 1916, the last one in southern California was granted in southern California in the Sunland area of Los Angeles, and became known as the Sunland Grizzly.
Only a few years later, in the spring of 1924, the last known brown bear in California was seen in the Sequoia National Park.
While they are unlikely to return to the State on their own “,[a] However, the well -planned reintroduction and recovery program, well covered and well managed, could establish a sustainable brown population of California in one or more recovery areas of several decades.
Behind the study is the Grizzly Alliance NetworkA group of collaborators who include researchers, tribal leaders and defenders of wildlife who work to bring bears back to the State.
Voltage of approximately 200 pages, the report brings together the novel and existing research to explore where in the state the bears could live and how many could live in those areas, as well as the economic effects, you consider them security and other dimensions. Reintroduce to bears would require moving them from a place where they currently live, such as Yellowstone National Park, California.
Using several models of habitat suitability, the study identifies three potential regions where bears could live: in the transverse ranges that extend from the coast to the desert in southern California (with an approach in large and protected areas in parents); The entire Sierra Nevada (with emphasis on the southern part of the range); And the Northwest Forest (which includes the Klamath, Trinity Alps mountains and other nearby ranges in the northwest corner of the state).
The study informs that the regions contain large protected and high quality habitat stripes, but consult that anyone or all are really used.
Assuming that the bears could not live outside the designated regions, the study estimates that California could house around 1,183 grizzlies: 115 in the transverse ranges, 832 in the Sierra Nevada and 236 in the Northwest forest.
Two young brothers of Pardo fighting early in the morning along Pelican Creek in Yellowstone National Park.
(Jonathan Newton / Getty images)
The researchers set a “well -covered” recovery program of up to $ 3 million a year during the first decade. Reacts .4% of the budget for the Department of Fishing and Wildlife of California, based on figures of 2024–25, according to the study.
Grizzlies often invoke fear, as an 8 -foot height animal does with prodigious claws, and human security is of great concern in discussing Grizzly recovery. But the study says that the statistical risk that animals represent for humans is “extremely small.” Of the estimated average deaths of wildlife every year in the US, 96% voice of car collisions with deer, reports the study.
Even so, the risk is not zero. In North America, there are approximately 1.5 deaths associated with bears annually, researchers said.
A separate 2019 study examining Brown Bear (A group that includes Grizzly) Attacks against humans In much of its global range between 2000 and 2015 it found that the attacks increased significantly over time.
The researchers said that the increase was probably due to several factors, including the growth of bears and human populations, which led to a higher habitat overlap. They also noticed that an increasing number of people recreate in areas of bears.
Grizzly bears also bring benefits, including Disperse seeds and air conditioning. In numbers large enough, they can maintain other species such as black bears.
Peter Tira, spokesman for the Department of Fishing and Wildlife of California, said that the State lacks resources and that the Grizzlies reintroductors could not prioritize, given all their existing responsibilities.
California, he said, no longer offers abundant salmon stores that are believed that bears have ever fed opportunities to wander on the coast now high. Given his tendency to vary widely, he said that there is no reason to assume that they will stay in remote areas.
“Reintroduce the brown bears potentially in places where people live, recreate and raise cattle that will probably need a greater management of human life conflicts, which is already an extremely species that the species that have to do with bears and coyotes,” Tira said in a statement.
Bruce McLellan, an environmental research environmentalist and author of “Science of the brown bear and the art of a wild life”, “ He admits that he initially thought that the idea of re -accusing the Grizzlies in California was crazy, partly due to the number of people living in the state. But much of the population is stuck in the lower half of the state, what is done in a closer inspection.
In British Columbia, where McLellan lives, the southern part of the province, home of most of its 5 million people, and that region now supports hundreds of Grizzlies as the population has recovered in time. People have acclimatized to their presence, he said.
“It makes me think that it is certainly biologically possible to have Grizzly bears in those corners of California,” Hey said.
Of course, he said, he would bring conflicts: a strange bear will defend the mountains and snatch someone’s chickens; A strange bear would have to be shot, but there are effective ways to deal with the conflict. People would need to be “aware of the bear” and potentially install electric fences, he said.
The Grizzlies are also “very adaptable,” he said, and pointed out that they do not need salmon or access to the beach without welcoming to survive.
“Many people where I live I like to see Grizzles in their courtyard,” McLellan said. “I love it.”
However, even if the Californians decided that they wanted bears, he believes that the United States lacks an adequate process for this to happen.
McLellan participated in the efforts to restore the Grizzlies in the North waterfalls in the state of Washington and the Wilderness Selway-bitterroot area in Montana and Idaho. However, decades of spending money and energy has not taken them to fruition, he said.
“I’ve been with a heart involved with both theme,” he said.
Peter Alagona, professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara, who directed the study, however, he sees a Pardo Return from California as a way of dissipating such ideas.
“I think he would turn on a person to show that we can do some things that we could not believe we could do,” said Alagona, who in 2016 founded the Grizzly Research Network in California.
Alagona also said it would serve as a form of repair justice.
In a prologue from the study, Octavio Escobedo III, president of the Indian Taxon, highlights what he describes as “parallel paths” forced by Native Americans and Grizzlies subject to a sanction of the State. Botentleithisthythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythyt hythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythythy Mothytlehy’s Mothytlehy and without holiness and sanctions of the lack of boots of the Holiness of botenty sanctioned and without holiness sanctioned and sanctioned with boats. “
The tube, writes, is among hundreds of indigenous nations that value and reverse the brown, and are the main efforts to conserve and coexist with the species.
Mcinturff, the federal employee, who is also an associated professor at the University of Washton, said the new study marks a turning point in the discussion when providing a compilation of the best science available.
“There are many speculations, many assumptions, and now we have a research body that we can see to talk about this issue,” he said.
At some point, Alagona intends to present the study findings to the California Fishing and Hunting Commission, which establishes the wildlife policy for the State.
Last year, the State Commission and Senate Approved resolutions Recognizing the centenary of the removal of California Grizzly, with the Senate declaring 2024 the “Year of Pardo”.
This month marks the 101 anniversary.
