Say No to Grizzlies in California

By Aarav Reddy Chilukuri, Grade 5

Imagine this: there is a young father and mother in the mountains of California. Suddenly, there is a grizzly bear coming out of nowhere … CRUNCH! I think you know what happens next. Although grizzly bears went extinct from California over 100 years ago, there is currently an effort underway to reintroduce them to California. This proposal has caused many disagreements. I strong disagree with this savage, barbaric idea of bringing grizzlies to California because they are dangerous to humans and they’ll just end up being hunted again.

Supporters of the grizzly reintroduction plan say we should bring bears back because Native Americans want them. “It’s important people to realize that the grizzly bear isn’t just a symbol on a flag - it was real animal that shaped California’s ecosystems and holds deep meaning for tribal nations across the state,” said Tejon Tribe Chairman Octavio Escobedo III, who contributed a foreword to the feasibility study. While the Native American peoples’ opinion matters, the amount of possible dangers when grizzlies come back outweigh the positive things that will happen.

The idea of bringing back 300-600 pound grizzly bears to an innocent population is plain treacherous. In 2011, seven unsuspecting teenage boys were hiking in the woods when they were attacked by a humongous, scary bear. They almost died. According to a Reader’s Digest article, “He had time only to turn around and scream, ‘Bear!’ before the grizzly closed the space between them, rising on its hind legs - towering 7 feet tall and weighing ab out 500 pounds - lunging and flattening him. With a horrific roar, it went straight for Berg’s head, chomping down on his skull with an audible crack.” Do we want this tragedy to happen again? If grizzly bears return there will definitely be newspaper articles saying “kid’s head gets chopped off by grizzly bear” and more things like that. Also, with all the problems in California already, like people not being able to afford homes, if we add grizzlies to the mix, we are COOKED. Like, mega-cooked.

Sadly, if grizzly bears come back because of this ludicrous and outlandish idea, humans won’t just be affected. The grizzlies would be affected, too. According to a KQED article, “The last hunt of the California grizzly occurred in Tulare County in August 1922. These hunting behaviors quickly led to a decline in the grizzly population, and within about 75 years of settlers’ arrival, the animal was declared extinct.” If grizzly bears went extinct because of encounters with humans with a California population of 4 million in 1922, imagine today’s population of 40 million heavily armed people ready to encounter grizzly bears in broad daylight!

Although bringing back grizzly bears seems like a really nice idea, we have to face the reality of this. We should focus more on other problems in California and make California a better place overall. So, repopulating California with grizzly bears is just threatening and plain bad!