Although I am not particularly interested in the bear vs bull topic which has developed on this forum, I want to comment on it due to the number of factual errors that have crept into various postings. Firstly, some of the weights of bears mentioned on this forum are totally incorrect. Hunters' tales and folklore have been responsible for much of this misinformation which has then found its way into popular literature. As one authority noted, the largest bears are always shot in areas without accurate scales (hardly surprising...) According to official zoological sources, these are the average/ range/highest weights of bears as below (nb. some of the highest weights are estimates rather than official records)
American Black Bear...250 ..... 125-600..... 803
Brown Bear ... 725 ..... 500-900 .....2,500+ ?
Grizzly Bear ... 490 ..... 350-700 .....1,100 / 1,496 ?
Polar Bear ... 1,150 ..... 900-1,500 ..... 2,210
The average weights of the American grizzly bear is 490 lbs with a maximum 'offical' recorded weight of either 1,100 lb or 1496 lb depending on which authority one accepts. Brown bears of the Russian far east are the world's largest bears along with Kodiac bears (now actually extinct on Kodiac Island). These bears may get somewhat larger than grizzlies, with a length of up to 10 ft. But even very large bears are hunted and eaten by Amur tigers and as has been no doubt mentioned, a good portion of the Amur tiger's diet is comprised of brown bear. The tiger is always placed at the top of the food pyramid in all habitats where it occurs because it is not predated upon by other animals.
Secondly, NONE of the sources on Californian grizzly bear fights that I've read (and I've seen quite a few) state that the bear was always the victor in such conflicts. In most cases of bear vs bull, both animals died during the conflict. One particular bear was proficient at fighting bulls but had been a known predator of cattle for many years. The bulls often killed the bears by throwing or goring them and apparently when a mountain lion was pitted against a grizzly, the lion won (many of you may have seen the video clip of a mountain lion with cubs seeing off a grizzly bear three times its own size). The bulls were further hindered by having their legs shackled (sometimes to that of the bear) which would surely disadvantage any ungulate moreso than it would the predator. Jackasses were also pitted against grizzlies later on in the piece. Below are some excerpts from period commentaries on capturing grizzlies and of pit fights. Makes for gory reading and is also rather tragic given the subsequent wiping out of the Californian grizzly.
"Every Mission and ranch in old times had its calaveras, its “place of skulls,” its slaughter corral, where cattle and sheep were killed by the Indian butchers Every Saturday morning the fattest animals were chosen and driven there, and by night the hides were all stretched on the hillside to dry. At one time a hundred cattle and two hundred sheep were killed weekly at the Mission San José, and the meat was distributed to all, “without money and without price.” The grizzly bears, which were very abundant in the country, ” for no one ever poisoned them, as the American stock raisers did after 1849, ” used to come by night to the ravines near the slaughter-corral where the refuse was thrown by the butchers. The young Spanish gentlemen often rode out on moonlight nights to lasso these bears, and then they would drag them through the village street, and past the houses of their friends. Two men with their strong rawhide reatas could hold any bear, and when they were tired of this sport they could kill him. But sometimes the bears would walk through the village on their way to or from the corral of the butchers, and so scatter the people. Several times a serenade party, singing and playing by moonlight, was suddenly broken up by two or three grizzlies trotting down the hill into the street, and the gay caballeros with their guitars would spring over the adobe walls and run for their horses, which always stood saddled, with a reata coiled, ready for use, as a saddle bow. It was the custom in every family to keep saddled horses in easy reach, day and night.
Innumerable stories about grizzlies are traditional in the old Spanish families, not only in the Santa Clara Valley, but also through the Coast Range from San Diego to Sonoma and Santa Rosa. Some of the bravest of the young men would go out alone to kill grizzlies. When they had lassoed one they would drag him to a tree, and the well-trained horse would hold the bear against it while the hunter slipped out of the saddle, ran up, and killed the grizzly with one stroke of his broad-bladed machete, or Mexican hunting knife. One Spanish gentlemen riding after a large grizzly lassoed it and was dragged into a deep barranca. Horse and man fell on the bear, and astonished him so much that he scrambled up the bank, and the hunter cut the reata and gladly enough let him go. There were many cases of herdsmen and hunters being killed by grizzlies, and one could fill a volume with stories of feats of courage and of mastery of the reata. The governor of California appointed expert bear hunters in different parts of the country, who spent their time in destroying them, by pits, or shooting, or with the reata. Don Rafael Soto, one of the most famous of these men used to conceal himself in a pit, covered with heavy logs and leaves, with a quarter of freshly killed beef above. When the grizzly bear walked on the logs he was shot from beneath. Before the feast- days the hunters sometimes went to the foothills and brought several bears to turn into the bull-fighting corral, The principal bull- fights were held at Easter and on the day of the patron saint of the Mission, which at the Mission San José was March 19. Young gentlemen who had trained for the contest entered the ring on foot and on horseback, after the Mexican manner. In the bull and bear fights a hind foot of the bear was often tied to the forefoot of the bull, to equalize the struggle, for a large grizzly was more than a match for the fiercest bull in California, or indeed of any other country. Bull and bear fights continued as late as 1855. The Indians were the most ardent supporters of this cruel sport."
And further:
"The bulls used for fighting were not the modern-day domestic type. ?Sharp of horn? and ?quick of foot,? these Spanish bulls possessed notoriously bad tempers and ?a charge like that of a catapult.? Attached at the leg by a leather cord about twenty yards long and penned in at close range, the two wild beasts had no choice but to face off. The fights were, as can be imagined, quite gory and certainly sated the bloodlust in even the most masochistic of audiences. Although matches were reported to have lasted up to two hours, things generally ended quickly, especially when the bear grabbed hold of the bull?s Achilles? heel?its tongue. One attendee recalled the horror of a fight?s final moments as the bear, ?its entrails dragging, ripped off the tongue, the ears, and much of the lower jaw of the bull.? If a bull triumphed, his victory usually came early in the tournament if he got lucky enough to ?plunge his long, curving horns in to the bear?s body, toss his adversary high into the air, and then gore him to death as the bear lay prostrate on the ground.? More often than not, however, both animals succumbed to their wounds."
Finally:
Onlookers too were at risk of injury. Bears or bulls, finding themselves free from their opponents when their restraints were somehow severed in battle, often ?forgot their differences? and fled, smashing and swiping their way through the audience in a desperate bid for freedom. A particularly determined bear ran pell-mell through the streets of San Francisco before clambering up the belltower of the Mission Dolores. So ensconced, the incensed bear held capturers at bay for several hours and alarmed the town with repeated clanging of the bell.
There were numerous variations in the contest. Denizens of Big Sur trapped a mountain lion and set it loose on a bear. The big cat won.
Nevada City residents had the grand idea of pitting a grizzly against a ?champion fighting jackass,? opening the gates to dozens of bear versus donkey matches throughout the state. ?If the bear was a real grizzly, he always won,? wrote one reporter, ?But the burro would worry him desperately for a long time. The bear would suffer tremendous jolts on the jaw from the burro?s heels, that would send him staggering back time and again.? Then the burro would latch on with its teeth until in its fury ?the angry bear bit the donkey?s leg off or bit his head ? As state became more civilized, bear and bull fights were outlawed. ?The pleasure a set of civilized beings can find in witnessing the forced conflict of animals,? wrote a reporter for a Bay Area newspaper.
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