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The Mexican grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) is an extinct population of the Brown
bear(oso pardo). All grizzly bears are brown bears. Only the notable distinctions
of this population from other populations are discussed here.
The holotype was shot by H. A. Cluff at Colonia Garcia, Chihuahua in 1899.[1]
The extinct California grizzly extended slightly south into Baja California Norte.
The bears in Durango, Chihuahua, and Sonora and central Mexico were likely
more related to the bears of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas than to those of
California.
Known in the Opatas language as the pissini,[2] the Mexican grizzly bear was
one of the heaviest and largest mammals in Mexico. It reached a length up to
1.83 metres (6.0 ft) and an average weight of 318 kilograms (701 lb).[citation
needed] Due to its silver fur it was often named "el oso plateado" (the silver
bear).[3] The Mexican grizzly bear was smaller than the grizzly bears in the
United States and Canada.[4] The general color was pale buffy yellowish[4]
varying to grayish-white, grizzled from the darker color of the underfur.
Specimens in worn pelage varied to yellowish-brown and reddish.[2] The
longest fur hairs were on the throat and the flanks. The belly was sparsely
haired lacking the thick underfur of the back and the flanks.[1]
Range and habitat[edit]
The Mexican grizzly bear inhabited the northern territories of Mexico, in
particular the temperate grasslands and mountainous pine forests. Its previous
range reached from Arizona to New Mexico and Mexico.
Biology[edit]
Like all brown bears, Mexican grizzly bears were omnivores. Their diet mainly
consisted of plants, fruits and insects and it is reported that it was very fond of
ants, like most brown bears.[5][6] Occasionally it fed also on small mammals
and carrion. Females produced one to three cubs every three years or so.[5]
Pfefferkorn, Ignaz. Sonora: A description of the province. Vol. 12. University of
New Mexico Press, 1949.
Extinction[edit]
The first Europeans to come in contact with the Mexican grizzly bear were the
conquistadors in the 16th century when Francisco Vsquez de Coronado went
on an expedition to find the Seven Cities of Gold. His trudge began in Mexico
City in 1540 and went north to New Mexico and the Buffalo Plains in the
modern-day U.S. states of Texas and Kansas.
Because bears hunted the cattle from time to time they were considered a pest
by farmers. The Mexican grizzly bear was trapped, shot and poisoned, and had
already become scarce in the 1930s. Its former range decreased to the three
isolated mountains Cerro Campana, Cerro Santa Clara, and Sierra del Nido 80
km north of Chihuahua in the state of Chihuahua. By 1960 only 30 of them
were left. Despite its protected status the hunting continued. By 1964 the
Mexican grizzly bear was regarded as extinct.[5] After rumours of some