Geological Survey that looks at where animals and plants are most threatened across the country. “California has the most imperiled biodiversity of any state in the contiguous United States,” the New York Times reported last week, distilling data from the U.S. The state has vast swaths of public land and open space in the Sierra Nevada, yet human development is encroaching on valuable habitat for wildlife species, habitat that is becoming increasingly vital to support the remaining biodiversity in the state. In California, wildlife continues to be threatened today. The bear was designated as the official state animal in 1953. According to state records, the last California grizzly bear was shot in Tulare County in 1922. In the late 1800s, William Randolph Hearst captured a large grizzly and put it in captivity in Golden Gate Park. But as humans overpopulated the land during the Gold Rush, settlers saw the grizzly bears as a threat and hunted them into extinction. Grizzlies once thrived in great numbers among California’s mountains and valleys. The California grizzly bear has long been extinct. Janet Kopper/Getty ImagesĬonsidering that close relations to humans are disrupting the natural way of life for bears, Hank’s memeification on the California state flag seems ominous. “They’ll just skip it altogether.”Ī hungry young black bear in Truckee rummages through trash cans, looking for food.
“With access to year-round food and alternative food sources, the body may not trigger them to go into that deep sleep,” Tira said. However, bears in Tahoe have habituated and become dependent on human food and garbage, which are both plentiful year-round. Hibernation is nature’s way of getting bears through the winter, when food sources are gone or buried beneath ice and snow, Tira said. “In Lake Tahoe, especially, we notice that not all bears hibernate,” said Peter Tira, spokesperson for CDFW. This winter, while exhibiting whiplash between extremes, has been marked by long stretches of unseasonably warm, dry conditions. Warm temperatures at the height of winter and climate change are also discouraging bears from going into a torpor state. At a time when bears should be hibernating.ĬDFW and Tahoe’s BEAR League agree that a growing number of Tahoe’s bears are no longer hibernating because access to human food and garbage is so plentiful. Remember the timing: News reports of Hank’s exploits started to gain traction across the country in February.
Hank, and many of Tahoe’s bears, are not hibernating.
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