MOUNTAINS GROUP
San Gorgonio Chapter
|
|
MOUNTAINS GROUP San Gorgonio Chapter |
|
|
|
||
 |
BEARS, here and there, then and now |
|
Bear History Fossil finds and historical data indicate that there once were numerous bear species on all of the planet’s continents, except for Antarctica and Australia. The Cave Bear, extinct at the last ice age about 20,000 years ago, was the direct ancestor of today’s bear species. The Cave Bear Bear evolution Prehistoric bears Only eight bear species remain on earth. Six of them are threatened or endangered. Of the other two, the brown bear and the black bear, subspecies are listed as threatened or endangered. Threatened Bear species Bears and Bear Classification Mystery bears Bears in North America Three bear species are found in North America: Brown Bears, Polar Bears and Black Bears. There are two subspecies of the North American brown bear: the Grizzly and the Kodiak Bear. The Grizzly lives in British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories in Canada; and in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana in the US. Once as many as 60,000 grizzlies lived in the lower 48 states of US. Today less than 1200 live in protected parks and wilderness areas. California used to have the greatest concentration of grizzlies in North America: an estimated 10,000 bears, or about 20 percent of the estimated 50,000 grizzlies on the continent. Today, there are no wild grizzlies in California. Big Bear and Big Bear Lake were named after the grizzly. By 1900, miners, loggers and cattle owners had killed the last of the big bears. The zoologist Joseph Grinnell stated in a 1908 University of California publication, that the grizzly “used to abound” in the San Bernardinos but had (in 1908) “long since disappeared throughout the region.” Later, black bears were introduced into the San Gabriels and San Bernardinos. Joseph Grinnell: The Biota of the San Bernardino Mountains (1908) G. Sidney Silliman: The Grizzly Bear Brown/Grizzly Bear facts The once (and future?) California Grizzly Grizzly Bear habitat at risk The Kodiak Bear has lived on the Alaskan islands Kodiak, Afognak, and Shuyak for thousands of years without interbreeding with other bear populations. Presently, there are about 3,000 Kodiak bears. Concern over reduced bear populations prompted sportsmen to petition the Federal government to protect the bears and their habitat on Kodiak. This resulted in stricter regulations and the creation of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge in 1941. Today hunters kill about 160 Kodiak bears each year under tightly controlled regulations.
The Polar Bear is the youngest of the bear species. It evolved from the brown bear about 200,000 years ago and adapted to the cold conditions of the Arctic. Today, global warming and chemicals are threatening them with extinction. Scientists project that if current warming trends continue, arctic ice may be gone in 70 years. The evolution of polar bears Threat of global warming No ice, no polar bears Melting habitat Polar bears dream of a white Christmas The Black Bear is wide spread throughout North America, with an estimated population of 600,000 bears, a little more than half of them in the US. The black bear is the smallest of the American bears and is very adaptable to various environments. The American Black Bear is listed as endangered or rare in some states. The Florida Black Bear subspecies is listed as threatened. The black bears presently living in the San Bernardino mountains are descendants of sixteen black bears imported from Yosemite in 1933. The California black bear population has increased from between 10,000 and 15,000 in 1982, to between 25,000 and 30,000 in 2004. There are two subspecies in California. The black bear in the southern California mountain ranges is Ursus americanus californiensis. The American Black Bear Threats to the Black Bear California’s Black Bear population Bears elsewhere on the planet Asiatic Black Bears The latin name, Selenarctos thibetanus, means “moon bear of Tibet.” The number of “moon bears” in the wild is declining and they are threatened with extinction due to loss of habitat and hunting. Pandas exist in only six small areas along the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau. Most of the bears that remain in the wild live in reserves established by the Chinese government. Only 700 pandas are estimated to live in the wild, with another 200 in zoos, mostly in China. Sloth Bears live in forests in Southeast Asia. Their number is estimated to be between 1000 and 7000. Due to increasing human population, farming, logging and other resource extraction, the sloth bears and their habitat are disappearing. Fortunately, in India efforts to save the Bengal tiger have also helped to conserve sloth bears and their habitat. Spectacled Bears live in South America. It is estimated that at least 10,000 live in the wild. Deforestation, loss of habitat due to farming, and hunting and poaching pose the biggest threats. In 1975, international trade in the species was prohibited. However, enforcement has been lacking and the spectacled bear continues to be threatened by the parts trade and human encroachment. The Sun Bear lives in forests in southeast Asia. Logging is destroying the bears' habitat and also changes the climate, causing surrounding forests to become drier, which increases the frequency of forest fires. Habitat loss, illegal trade in bear parts, and conflicts with humans also are other threats to the species’ survival. Protective laws have not been enforced. Brown Bears The European Brown Bear is making a comeback in recent years thanks to conservation efforts. The European brown bear European brown bear conservation Bear conservation in Eastern Europe Recently Extinct Brown Bears Two brown bear species have been extinguished in the last two centuries: the Atlas Bear, Africa’s only native bear, the last of which was killed in the 1870s, and the Mexican Grizzly, that has been extinct since the 1960s. |
|
