Page 63 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

EXTINCT AND NEARLY EXTINCT SPECIES 41
At present, Mexico is in no frame of mind to provide real protection to a small colony of seals of no commercial value, 175 miles from her mainland, on an uninhabited island. It is wildly improbable that those seals will be permitted to live. It is a safe prediction that our next news of the elephant seals of Guadalupe will tell of the total extinction of those last 140 survivors of the species.
The California Grizzly Bear, (Ursus horrihilis californicus).—Na one protects grizzly bears, except in the Yellowstone Park and other gamepreserves. Forobviousreasons,itisimpossibletosaywhetherany individuals of this huge species now remain alive, or how long it will be until the last one falls before a .405 Winchester engine of extermination. We know that a living specimen can not be procured with money, and we believe that " Old Monarch " now in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is the last specimen of his species that ever will be exhibited alive.
I can think of no reason, save general Californian apathy, why the extinction of this huge and remarkable animal w^as not prevented by law. The sunset grizzly (on a railroad track) is the advertising em- blem of the Golden State, and surely the state should take sufficient interest in the species to prevent its total extermination.
But it will not. California is hell-bent on exterminating a long list of her wild-life species, and it is very doubtful whether the masses can be reached and aroused in time to stop it. Name some of the species? Certainly; with all the pleasure in life: The band-tailed pigeon, the white-tailed kite, the sharp-tailed grouse, the sage grouse, the mountain sheep, prong-horned antelope California mule deer, and ducks and geese too numerous to mention.