Supplementary material from "Coupled social and ecological change drove the historical extinction of the California grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos californicus )" ...

• Main Authors: 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.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2023
• Subjects: Palaeontology incl. palynology; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.6935718.v1; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Coupled_social_and_ecological_change_drove_the_historical_extinction_of_the_California_grizzly_bear_i_Ursus_arctos_californicus_i_/6935718/1

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 Historical documents portrayed California grizzlies as massive hypercarnivores that endangered public safety.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 over the past 7000 years. Euro-American land use practices following 1542 led grizzlies to moderately ...