Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus )
Large carnivores (order Carnivora) are among the world's most threatened mammals due to a confluence of ecological and social forces that have unfolded over centuries. Combining specimens from natural history collections with documents from archival records, we reconstructed the factors surroun...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 2024-09-15T18:40:11+00:00 Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) Mychajliw, Alexis M. Adams, Andrea J. Brown, Kevin C. Campbell, Beau T. Hardesty-Moore, Molly Welch, Zoë S. Page, Henry M. Southon, John R. Cooper, Scott D. Alagona, Peter S. UCSB Graduate Division 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdf https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 291, issue 2014 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2024 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 2024-08-26T04:21:00Z Large carnivores (order Carnivora) are among the world's most threatened mammals due to a confluence of ecological and social forces that have unfolded over centuries. Combining specimens from natural history collections with documents from archival records, we reconstructed the factors surrounding the extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ), a once-abundant brown bear subspecies last seen in 1924. Historical documents portrayed California grizzlies as massive hypercarnivores that endangered public safety. Yet, morphological measurements on skulls and teeth generate smaller body size estimates in alignment with extant North American grizzly populations (approx. 200 kg). Stable isotope analysis ( δ 13 C, δ 15 N) of pelts and bones ( n = 57) revealed that grizzlies derived less than 10% of their nutrition from terrestrial animal sources and were therefore largely herbivorous for millennia prior to the first European arrival in this region in 1542. Later colonial land uses, beginning in 1769 with the Mission era, led grizzlies to moderately increase animal protein consumption (up to 26% of diet), but grizzlies still consumed far less livestock than otherwise claimed by contemporary accounts. We show how human activities can provoke short-term behavioural shifts, such as heightened levels of carnivory, that in turn can lead to exaggerated predation narratives and incentivize persecution, triggering rapid loss of an otherwise widespread and ecologically flexible animal. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 291 2014 |
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English |
description |
Large carnivores (order Carnivora) are among the world's most threatened mammals due to a confluence of ecological and social forces that have unfolded over centuries. Combining specimens from natural history collections with documents from archival records, we reconstructed the factors surrounding the extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ), a once-abundant brown bear subspecies last seen in 1924. Historical documents portrayed California grizzlies as massive hypercarnivores that endangered public safety. Yet, morphological measurements on skulls and teeth generate smaller body size estimates in alignment with extant North American grizzly populations (approx. 200 kg). Stable isotope analysis ( δ 13 C, δ 15 N) of pelts and bones ( n = 57) revealed that grizzlies derived less than 10% of their nutrition from terrestrial animal sources and were therefore largely herbivorous for millennia prior to the first European arrival in this region in 1542. Later colonial land uses, beginning in 1769 with the Mission era, led grizzlies to moderately increase animal protein consumption (up to 26% of diet), but grizzlies still consumed far less livestock than otherwise claimed by contemporary accounts. We show how human activities can provoke short-term behavioural shifts, such as heightened levels of carnivory, that in turn can lead to exaggerated predation narratives and incentivize persecution, triggering rapid loss of an otherwise widespread and ecologically flexible animal. |
author2 |
UCSB Graduate Division |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mychajliw, Alexis M. Adams, Andrea J. Brown, Kevin C. Campbell, Beau T. Hardesty-Moore, Molly Welch, Zoë S. Page, Henry M. Southon, John R. Cooper, Scott D. Alagona, Peter S. |
spellingShingle |
Mychajliw, Alexis M. Adams, Andrea J. Brown, Kevin C. Campbell, Beau T. Hardesty-Moore, Molly Welch, Zoë S. Page, Henry M. Southon, John R. Cooper, Scott D. Alagona, Peter S. Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) |
author_facet |
Mychajliw, Alexis M. Adams, Andrea J. Brown, Kevin C. Campbell, Beau T. Hardesty-Moore, Molly Welch, Zoë S. Page, Henry M. Southon, John R. Cooper, Scott D. Alagona, Peter S. |
author_sort |
Mychajliw, Alexis M. |
title |
Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) |
title_short |
Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) |
title_full |
Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) |
title_fullStr |
Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus ) |
title_sort |
coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the california grizzly bear ( ursus arctos californicus ) |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 291, issue 2014 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdf https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0921 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
291 |
container_issue |
2014 |
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1810484490908205056 |