The California Golden Bear
Go Bears! The chant for Cal’s mascot, the California Golden Bear, embodies passion, excitement, and even sarcasm. Inspired by the California grizzly bear (Ursus arctos v.californicus), the figure was the symbol of the Bear Flag Revolt, when American settler-colonists rebelled against the Mexican and Spanish rule to declare California an independent republic in the summer of 1846. Fearing forced removal from the government, the rebels chose the bear, with a history of conflict with rancheros and their livestock, as their symbol to represent “strength and unyielding resistance”. While the revolt succeeded in establishing California as an “independent republic”, the United States Flag was raised three weeks later and motives shifted to join the Union.
Historical accounts of the rebellion lack clear motives and there remains substantial debate over its significance. Due to the small scope of the revolt, the Bear Flag was not regarded at the time, especially after the U.S. flag replaced it. The story of the flag and its followers, the “Bear Flaggers”, likely would have been lost to history had not the letters and drawings accounting its story been written and saved. Prominent figures of the Bear Flaggers have been described by some historians as thieves, slave owners, military deserters, drunks, and buffoons. An LA Times Op-Ed from 2015 even called for Californians to “dump the bear flag” because of its racist and violent history.
The main proponents behind adopting the Bear Flag were members of the Native Sons of the Golden West, including state senator James Holohan who introduced the bill. Formed in 1875, the fraternal organization has a history of racism, especially against Japanese people and their descendents. The organization called for the exclusion of all “orientals” from California in 1907 and frequently published racist images and false information in their monthly newspaper The Grizzly Bear. The author of the LA Times Op-Ed argues that a “racist, jingoistic fever” fueled Senator James Holohan and other proponents of adopting the Bear Flag to glorify the Bear Flaggers.
The complexity of the Bear Flag Revolt justifies its significance and many continue to appreciate its legacy. Every June 14th, the city of Sonoma celebrates the anniversary of the revolt with an elaborate reenactment that has been performed since at least 1897. The organizer and writer of the event, George Webber, claims that the Bear Flaggers were not drunks or buffoons. His argument, however, shifts the responsibility of any harm away from the Bear Flaggers and towards other U.S. officials who were present in California during the tumultuous period.
Whatever the intentions of the Bear Flaggers and their supporters were, they succeeded and the state adopted the flag in 1911. While the flag remains as a symbol of historical significance, it is important to also acknowledge the harm its early proponents have done. The state flag does not resemble the original Bear Flag and should be recognized for its own historical significance. The California Grizzly Bear was an iconic species that fascinated Californians. Instead of attributing the history of the state flag towards early settler-colonists with questionable backgrounds, Californians should honor the past and potential future of the bear.
The California state flag went through various iterations before the final product we see and know today. The bear we see on the flag was modeled after Monarch, deemed the “last wild grizzly bear in California”. In 1889, William Randolph Hearst (son of Phoebe A. Hearst and donor of The Greek Theater) challenged his reporter, Allen Kelly, to capture a living California grizzly bear (Ursus arctos californicus). Kelly returned with Monarch after five months in the mountains of Ventura county. Monarch lived for 22 years in captivity before he was euthanized and stuffed in 1911. The taxidermied figure of Monarch was given to the California Academy of Sciences and his skeleton was acquired by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology here at UC Berkeley. That same year, the state of California adopted the Bear flag with Monarch’s figure in the center as the official state flag.
The historical significance of the bear as a symbol is clearly very complex and reflects the dynamic state our university calls home. The narrative becomes even more interesting as we consider the bear itself, and how they vanished from the state.
The California grizzly bear thrived in the state for centuries before the impacts of westward expansion, as much as 10,000 individuals were estimated at the time of European arrival. The largest in California, Individuals grew up to eight feet tall and weighed as much as 2,000 pounds. The rapid human population increase from the 1849 Gold Rush caused frequent conflict with the bears. The last physical record of a California grizzly bear was an individual that was killed in 1922, and the subspecies was declared extinct after a final sighting in 1924. Today, only black bears (Ursus americanus) are found in California.
However, the California grizzly bear lives on as our beloved mascot Oski, state symbol, and through other grizzly bear (U. arctos) relatives across the Northern Hemisphere. The dominant grizzly bear subspecies found in North America is U. arctos horribilis, also known as the brown bear. Male grizzly bears weigh up to 1,700 pounds and females weigh up to 800 pounds. Their range once included the entirety of Western North America from the Northern tips of Alaska down to central Mexico. Their extant range in the lower 48 U.S. states is limited to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Northern Idaho, Northwestern Montana, and along the border of Washington and Canada. Conflict with livestock ranchers and hunting has reduced the population in the lower 48 states from 50,000 to less than 1,000 individuals by 1973, when the Endangered Species Act banned hunting. Since the ESA, grizzly bear protection has gone through a complex journey of reintroductions, continued conflict, delisting, re-listing, and more alterations. Today, grizzly bears are listed as threatened and recovery is overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Grizzly bear management and conservation is determined by a collaborative international, federal, state, Indigenous, and public effort. In 1983, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) was formed to “help ensure recovery of viable grizzly bear populations and their habitat in the Lower 48 states through interagency coordination of policy, planning, management, and research.” The committee includes various federal departments, state wildlife agencies, Canadian Wildlife Service, and Indigenous representatives to recommend policy and management strategies. In 2013, the IGBC and other agencies recommended that grizzly bears be delisted from the ESA due to a population increase from 135 to over 700 bears in the lower 48 states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service then removed the grizzly bear subpopulation in Yellowstone from the threatened species list in 2017, opening up the potential for hunting.
Various conservation organizations and Indigenous nations opposed the removal of ESA protections for grizzly bears since the extant population was far below the historic range. Over 125 Indigenous nations of the Global Indigenous Council signed The Grizzly Treaty, the most-signed treaty in tribal history, to insist that ESA protection status be restored and bans on hunting for continued recovery efforts. Their efforts succeeded when a federal judge overturned the delistment decision in 2018 and grizzly bear protection status remains to this day.
The process for delisting a species from federal protection is detailed in Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act and considers the historic range. In California, grizzly bears have been missing since the extinction of the subspecies in 1924. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal petition in 2014 calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop reintroduction programs in California and other Western states, however the petition was denied. Today, the effort for the return of grizzly bears is spearheaded by the California Grizzly Research Network which was formed in 2016 by researchers from UC Santa Barbara and UC Los Angeles. The group works on various public engagement projects, ecological research, and mapping potential habitat.
The history of California and grizzly bears reveals the complex consequences of American settler-colonialism and the extent of its impact. Even state symbols are at the discretion of individuals and their experiences with government institutions. The extinction of the California grizzly bear is a tragic story and poorly reflects humans’ ability to coexist with wildlife and the environment. The bear upon the state flag and Cal merchandise serves as a constant reminder of the consequences of ecological ignorance. The potential return of grizzly bears to California is still a relatively young effort that requires continued engagement from the public, research institutions, and government agencies. While the return of the extinct California grizzly bear is practically impossible, there is still an opportunity to welcome a grizzly bear subspecies back to California. Welcoming grizzly bears back to California would be a historic success for conservation biology and serve as a stepping stone for reconciling the atrocities of settler colonialism. The state has changed dramatically since the last grizzly bear roamed the landscape, and continued collaboration between the public, research institutions, Indigenous nations, and federal agencies is necessary for equitable success. Perhaps one day we can shout “Go Bears!” with the satisfaction of knowing that our mascot once again thrives in the golden state.
