Prominent Authors & Literary Milestones

[grrraaahhh]

The "Bear God" - Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén (1924-1988)



Bjorn Kurten (1979).



Finnish writer, professor of paleontology at the University Helsinki, who gained international fame as a writer with his popular science fiction books of ancient men, DEN SVARTA TIGERN (1978, Dance of the Tiger) and MAMMUTENS RÅDARE (1982, Singletusk). Along with George Gaylord Simpson in America, Björn Kurtén was the founding father of an important scientific movement that united Darwinian theory with empirical studies of fossil vertebrates. He was also a leading student of fossil bears – and by chance his first name Björn means "bear" in his native Swedish.

"Kurtén has managed to insinuate into his story – in a way so subtle and natural that we can scarcely recognize he is teaching as well as novelizing - every fact and theory that I know (and several, undoubtedly, that I don't) about Neandertals, Cro-Magnons, human evolution during the Ice Age, glacial geology, and ecology and behavior of the great Ice Age mammals, including mammoths and saber-toothed tigers." (Stephen Jay Gould in his introduction to Dance of the Tiger)

Björn Kurtén was born in Vaasa, the son of Lennart Kurtén, a bank director, and Hjördis (Ståhlberg) Kurtén. While in school he started to write adventure stories. His first book, DET NYA JAKTPLANET (1941), was published by Schildt. It was followed by SPÅRET FRÅN ULTIMA ESPERANZA (1945). After graduating from the Vasa Svenska Samskola, Kurtén entered in 1943 the University of Helsinki, where he studied geology and zoology. He also did his military service, resuming his studies in 1945. For a period, Kurtén was editor of Studentbladet. During the next decades he wrote a number of popularized essays about paleontology for Hufvudstadsbladet and Vasabladet.

In 1950 Kurtén married Ruth Margareta Nordman; they had four children. Before finishing his studies in Helsinki, where there was only a small fossil mammal collection, Kurtén studied paleontology in Sweden at the University of Uppsala under Birger Bohlin and received his Ph.D. in 1954. Kurtén's first major scientific publication, THE CHINESE HIPPARION FAUNA, appeared in 1952. Especially Georg Gaylord Simpson's (1902-1984) Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944) influenced his early works. Several of Kurtén paleonthological studies in the 1950s and 1960s dealt with the family of Ursidae, SEX DIMORPHISM AND SIZE TRENDS IN THE CAVE BEAR (1955), LIFE AND DEATH OF THE PLEISTOCENE CAVE BEAR (1958), ON THE BEARS OF THE HOLSTEINIAN INTERGLACIAL (1959), EVOLUTION OF THE POLAR BEAR, URSUS MARITIMUS PHIPPS (1964), PLEISTOCENE BEARS OF NORTH AMERICA (1966-1967). During the decades, he learned to know almost every collection of bears in Europe. Kurtén suggested that Cro-Magnons may have contributed to the extinction of the fragmented populations of the Ursus spelaeus, the Cave Bear. Also big and small cats fascinated Kurtén. His monographs on fossil cats include ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN WILD CAT (1965), GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN SIZE IN THE PUMA (1973), and PLEISTOCENE JAGUARS IN NORTH AMERICA (1973).

From 1955 to 1972 Kurtén was lecturer at the University of Helsinki. He was also a researcher at the University of Florida, a visiting professor at the University of Harvard (1971-71) and Personal Professor of Paleontology at the University of Helsinki from 1972 to 1988. In Spain and Tunisia Kurtén participated in scientific excavations. He died in Helsinki on December 28, 1988. Throughout his life, Kurtén remained interested in bears. Before his death, he visited in 1987 the Noboribetsu Bear Park, Hokkaido. Kurtén received several awards from his popular scientific works, including the State award for Public Information (1970 and 1980) and Unesco's Kalinga Award. Earlier it had been given among others to George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, Julian Huxley, Konrad Lorenz, Margaret Mead, and Bertrand Russell. He was also an honorary member of the Anthropological Association of Greece (AEE).

Much of his writing Kurtén did in the achipelago, where he spent his summers with his family. Among Kurtén major scientific publications are his dissertation ON THE VARIATION AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF FOSSIL AND RECENT MAMMAL POPULATIONS (1953), PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF EUROPE (1968), published in the same year in Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Holland, and PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA (1980), with Elaine Anderson. INTE FRÅN APORNA (1971, Not from the Apes) was also translated into several languages. In 1988 appeared ON EVOLUTION AND FOSSIL MAMMALS, a collection of earlier studies.

"I suspect that our view of men who live in close contact with nature is colored by the romantic image of the taciturn Red Indian, the epitome of the Noble Savage. In contrast, my experience of the men of forests and lakes is that they are loquacious to a degree, with a great fund of small talk; they carry their hearts on their sleeves: Aloofness is a simply a mask put on before a stranger. A large vocabulary is characteristic of the so-called primitive languages of today, and probably has been so for millenniums. To find a really primitive language I suspect you would have to journey back in time to the beginning of the Ice Age." (from Dance of The Tiger)

In the 1970s Kurtén returned to fiction with Dance of the Tiger, set in the era of 35 000 years ago in Scandinavia, during a thaw in the great Ice Age. It depicted story of Tiger, the chief of a Cro-Magnon tribe, and his wife, Morsinko, a Neanderthal woman. Neanderthals are white-skinned, Cro-Magnons dark; Cro-Magnon children and adults have smooth brows and small faces; the characteristic features of childhood act as "innate releasing mechanisms" for feelings of affection – a theory familiar from Konrad Lorenz's writings. "To the Whites, the Blacks were godlike, tall and eloquent, with a speech as varied and flexible as that of the birds. And there was something else. No White could look at the clear brow of a Black without feeling a mysterious tenderness, such as a child might evoke in the heart of his parents." Kurtén offered the explanation that the Neanderthals disappeared because they fell fatally in love with their black and beautiful Cro-Magnon neighbours, and brought them home to engage in sterile matches. The Cro-Magnon people, who were more aggressive and practiced slavery and violence, conquered the peace loving Neanderthal society, based on matriarchal system. Also the nobel writer William Golding has examined in The Inheritors the vanishing of the Neandertal – Golding saw them children of nature who are destroyed by the brutal invaders.

Singletusk, his next novel, continued the story of the family. Kurtén's picture of the early society is realistic without exaggerating the violent aspects of life. He portrayed the development, everyday life, and dreams and fears of the ancient people. Both of these prehistoric stories were mostly based on scientific theories. Kurtén's supposition that Neanderthals and ancestors of modern Homo Sapiens occupied same areas in the same time in Europe have been confirmed by fossil evidence.

For further reading: 'Björn Kurtén - a memorial volume', ed. by Ann Forstén, Mikael Fortelius, Lars Werdelin, in Annales Zoologici Fenici (1991, ); 'Muinaisaikojen elävöittäjä Björn Kurtén' by Anto Leikola in Kansallisgalleria: Suuret suomalaiset, ed. by Allan Tiitta et al. (1997); 'Kurtén, Björn' by Anto Leikola, in Suomen kansallisbiografia 5, ed. by Matti Klinge et al. (2005) - Other prehistoric fantasies: Johannes V. Jensen's Den Lange Rejse (1908-22); J.H. Rosny's La guerre de feu (1909); Edgar Rice Burrough's The Eternal Lover (1925); J. Leslie Mitchell's There Go Back (1932); William Golding's The Inheritors (1955); note also such romantic works by Jean Untinen-Auel as The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980), The Valley of Horses (1982), The Mammoth Hunters (1985), The Plains of Passage (1990) - See also: L.S.B. Leakey

Selected works:

* DET NYA JAKTPLANET: ÄVENTYRSBERÄTTELSE, 1941
* SPÅRET FRÅN ULTIMA ESPERANZA, 1945
* DE TRE KORSEN: ÄVENTYRSROMAN, 1948
* THE CHINESE HIPPARION FAUNA, 1952
* ON THE VARIATION AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF FOSSIL AND RECENT MAMMAL POPULATION, 1953
* SEX DIMORPHISM AND SIZE TRENDS IN THE CAVE BEAR, URSUS SPELAEUS ROSENMÜLLER AND HEINBROTH, 1955
* LIFE AND DEATH OF THE PLEISTOCENE CAVE BEAR, 1958
* CHRONOLOGY AND FAUNAL EVOLUTION OF THE EARLIER EUROPEAN GLACIATIONS, 1960
* URMÄNNISKOR OCH SABELTIGRAR, 1961
* MÄNNISKANS UTVECKLING, 1963
* ISTIDENS DJURVÄRLD, 1964
* THE CARNIVORA OF THE PALESTINE CAVES, 1965
* PLEISTOCENE BEARS OF NORTH AMERICA. 1-2, 1966-67
* PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF EUROPE, 1968
* DINOSAURIERNAS VÄRLD, 1968 - The Age of Dinosaurus (tr. 1968)
* ISTIDEN, 1969 (illustrated by Margaret Lambert, Olof Landström och Viking Nyström) - The Ice Age (tr. from the Swedish, 1972) - Jääkausi (suom. Virve Kajaste, 1972)
* DÄGGDJURENS TIDSÅLDER, 1971 (övers. av författaren) - The Age of Mammals (tr. 1971)
* INTE FRÅN APORNA, 1971 (illustr. av Margaret Lambert) - Not from the Apes (transl. by the author, 1972)
* BJÖRNEN FRÅN DRAKHÅLAN, 1975
* THE CAVE BEAR STORY: LIFE AND DEATH OF A VANISHED ANIMAL, 1976
* ´ DEN SVARTA TIGERN, 1978 - Dance of the Tiger: a Novel of the Ice Age (introd. by Stephen Jay Gould, 1980) - Musta tiikeri (suom. Virve Kajaste, 1981)
* HUR MAN FRYSER EN MAMMUT, 1980 - How to Deep-Freeze a Mammoth - Kuinka mammutti pakastetaan (suom. Irma Rostedt, 1982)
* 63 FÖRSTENADE HJÄRTAN, 1980
* PLEISTOCENE MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA, 1980 (with Elaine Anderson)
* MAMMUTENS RÅDARE: EN ROMAN ON ISTIDEN, 1982 - Singletusk: a Novel of the Ice Age (tr. 1986) - Mammutin suojelija (suom. Leila Koivukangas, 1984)
* VÅRA ÄLDSTA FÖRFÄDER, 1986 (illustrated by Viking Nyström) - Our Earliest Ancestors (translated from the Swedish by Erik J. Friis, 1993)
* DE SKULDLÖSA MÖRDARNA, 1987 (illustrated by Viking Nyström) - The Innocent Assassins: Biological Essays on Life in the Present and Distant Past (translated by Björn Kurtén & Erik J. Friis) - Viattomat tappajat (suom. Irma Rostedt, 1988)
* BEFORE THE INDIANS, 1988 (ill. by Margaret Lambert Newman and Hubert Pepper)
* ON EVOLUTION AND FOSSIL MAMMALS, 1988


www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bkurten.htm

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CCYQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sekj.org%2FPDF%2Fanzf28%2Fanz28-123-126.pdf&rct=j&q=bjorn%20kurten&ei=A5KyTJu5LIv4sAPZ95G4DA&usg=AFQjCNFxvbb0EydGfFTODh7LXNCsj2g0sw&cad=rja

[grrraaahhh]

Alexander von Middendorff





Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (Russian: Александр Федорович Миддендорф) (August 18, 1815 – January 24, 1894) was a Russian zoologist and explorer of Baltic German and Estonian origin.


Education

Middendorff received his early education from tutors in Reval and at a gymnasium in Saint Petersburg. From 1832 he pursued a medical degree at the University of Tartu where his professors included Georg Friedrich Parrot, Nikolai Pirogov, Hermann Martin Asmuss and Alexander Friedrich von Hueck. Middendorff graduated in 1837 with a dissertation (written in Latin) on polyps in the bronchi. He then undertook further studies at Berlin, Erlangen, Vienna, and Breslau. In 1839, under the patronage of Karl Ernst von Baer, he accepted a job at Kiev University.



Explorer and scientist

In 1839, Middendorff became Assistant Professor of Zoology at Kiev University.

In the summer of 1840, Karl Ernst von Baer asked Middendorff to join him on Baer's second expedition to Novaya Zemlya (the first one took place in 1837). Due to stormy conditions the expedition failed to reach Novaya Zemlya, but Baer and Middendorff explored Russian and Norwegian Lapland, as well as the Barents and White Seas. Middendorff was tasked with crossing on foot the Kola Peninsula and mapping the peninsula from Kola to Kandalaksha while collecting zoological and botanical material.

From 1843 to 1845, on behalf of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he travelled to the Taimyr Peninsula and then along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and entered the lower Amur River valley (which at this time was Chinese territory). He published his findings in Reise in den äußersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens (Travels in the extreme north and east of Siberia) in German (1848–1875), which included an account of the effects of permafrost on the spread of animals and plants. He also wrote Die Isepiptesen Russlands (1855), an account of bird migration in Russia, and a monograph on molluscs, Beiträge zu einer Malacozoologia Rossica (1848–1849), in which he coined the term radula.

In 1870 he visited the Baraba steppe and in 1878 the Ferghana valley.

He died at Hellenurme in the Governorate of Livonia, nowadays in Valga County, Estonia.

Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler, Cape Middendorff (Novaya Zemlya), Kodiak Bear, and Middendorff Bay (Taymyr Peninsula) are named after him.


Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Middendorff






Ursidae

It wasn't until 1851 that biologist Alexander Theodor von Middendorff recognized all brown bears as the species Ursus arctos. That same year, Middendorff gave the grizzly the subspecies name Ursus arctos horribilis, which means "horrible northern bear."

For over a century, scientists recognized several North American brown bear subspecies. That changed in 1953 when biologist R.L. Rausch designated all brown bears not living on Alaska's Kodiak, Afognak and Shuyak islands as grizzlies. Kodiak bears remained Ursus arctos middendorffi, which means "Middendorff's northern bear."


Reference, The Grizzly Almanac by Robert H. Busch - 2004.

[grrraaahhh]

Robert L. Rausch, (1921 - 2012)



D.V.M., Ph.D. Professor Emeritus
Department of Comparative Medicine
School of Medicine
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98368


Primary research includes zoonotic diseases and the natural history and taxonomy of their mammalian hosts. Field and laboratory investigations have emphasized various diseases, including rabies, brucellosis, and tularemia, that affect indigenous peoples in the Arctic and Subarctic. Since 1950, sustained research has concerned cestodes of the genus Echinococcus, each species of which causes a distinctive disease in people. Investigations begun in 1950 on St. Lawrence Island (Bering Sea) led to recognition of E. multilocularis as an independent species, resolving a century-long controversy as to the etiology of alveolar echinococcosis, and to elucidation of the natural cycle of that cestode. From 1970 to 1996, in collaboration with physicians at the Alaska Native Medical Center (Anchorage), investigations concerned methods of diagnosis, chemotherapy, and prevention of alveolar echinococcosis. Related studies were also undertaken in the field in Japan, People's Republic of China, and NE Siberia (in collaboration with V. R. Rausch). Since 1950 also, the investigation of cystic echinococcosis has been conducted concurrently. In 1972, a neotropical species, E. vogeli, was described by Rausch and Bernstein from a wild canid, Speothos venaticus, captured in Ecuador. In collaboration with A. D'Alessandro, Tulane University, and V. R. Rausch, the cycle was defined during the late 1970's in Colombia. Polycystic echinococcosis caused by that cestode is now known to be a severe disease occurring in people in northern countries of South America, and as far north as Panama. A project in progress since 1949 concerns cestodes (Diphyllobothriidae) transmitted from fishes to people and other mammals, and to piscivorous birds, mainly in the northern hemisphere. Several new species, some occurring in people, have been described in Alaska. Basic investigations on the taxonomy of helminths and of mammals are continuing.



For over a century, scientists recognized several North American brown bear subspecies. That changed in 1953 when biologist R.L. Rausch designated all brown bears not living on Alaska's Kodiak, Afognak and Shuyak islands as grizzlies. Kodiak bears remained Ursus arctos middendorffi, which means "Middendorff's northern bear."


From On the Status of Some Arctic Mammals, limited text extract:

The specific status of North American grizzly bears is one of the most complex problems of mammalian taxonomy. The difficulty stems directly from the work of Merriam (1918), who concluded that there are 86 forms of grizzlies (and brown bears) in North America. He stated: "One of the unlooked-for results of the critical study of the American bears is the discovery that the big bears, like mice and other small mammals, split up into a large number of forms whose ranges in some cases overlap so that three or more species may be found in the same region" (p. 9). Such a view is not tenable, but evidence to the contrary is not easily secured.
The grizzly has been exterminated over much of its former North American range. Although it still exists in considerable numbers in Alaska, the problem of obtaining adequate material for study is nevertheless serious. The killing of bears for scientific purposes cannot often be justified, because of the rapid reduction of their numbers now being brought about through sport hunting. I have been fortunate, however, in securing 22 skulls, several with skins, from the central Brooks Range region. Full data on sex, date, and place of capture have been obtained. Additional specimens from various other localities within the Territory have also been assembled and pertinent material in various public and private collections has been studied.

From this material, I have concluded that a single, but highly variable, species of grizzly bear occurs in Alaska, and I shall endeavor in this paper to substantiate this conclusion. The extreme degree of individual variation demonstrated by the Brooks Range specimens is considered particularly significant.

In assigning specific names to various specimens of grizzlies which he obtained, Merriam failed to take into consideration any possibility of individual variation. Some "species" were named on the basis of a single skull, and in some cases not even the sex of the animal was known. Simpson (1945) has appropriately remarked that: "С. H. Merriam distinguished about 90 species of North American bears alone, but he had a (fortunately) unique conception of the character of a species, giving it less scope than most authors give a minor geographic race, not much more than an individual genetic family group. On such a system twin bear cubs could be of different species." (p. 225, footnote).

Further, Merriam's system of bear classification was based upon the hypothesis that the "species" of bears occurring in the same region maintain their identity by segregated breeding. In reference to this, Merriam (1918, p. 8) stated: "Some writers have advanced the view that the various species of bears freely interbreed. Let those so minded ask themselves the question, If promiscuous interbreeding were to take place, what would become of the species?". It would seem that Merriam concluded a prior that the species existed, and then went about finding means to support such a conclusion.

It is difficult to obtain much data on the breeding habits of bears. Most animals coming under close observation are usually seen over the sights of a rifle, and rarely live long, enough to carry on their normal activities. Murie (1944) described the mating activities of two physically different male bears with a single female in the Mount McKinley region. Anyone working in a place where grizzlies still occur will soon note a lack of uniformity in the physical characteristics of the animals. Grizzlies, particularly males, travel considerable distances. This, together with their low density in most regions, suggests that breeding occurs on a chance basis alone. Under the stresses of breeding time it is most unlikely that bears are very selective in their matings, but rather that they must copulate according to opportunity. This is a fundamental concept which I adopt as valid. If one must wait until a large series of grizzlies, collected after having been observed in coitu, has been assembled, the problem is hopeless. If my conclusion that the grizzlies of Alaska represent but one species is valid, certain generalizations are possible.

It seems necessary first to consider separately the various characteristics used heretofore to differentiate species of grizzlies, in the light of a broader species concept.
External characteristics

Size: Grizzlies in Alaska vary greatly in size, even in the same locality. Over the Territory as a whole, the largest animals occur on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. In other regions the adult bears vary in size between rather broad limits. In the Brooks Range, where I have made the most observations, the adult bears range from about 400 to 700 lbs., the latter weight though is rare. Such a size range appears to be characteristic of grizzlies over most of interior Alaska. Specimens from southeastern Alaska have not been considered in this study.

On Kodiak and Afognak islands, and on the Alaska Peninsula, the species attains its greatest size in North America. Extremely large animals are becoming scarce as a result of incessant hunting pressure, but specimens weighing from 1,200 to, perhaps, 1,500 lbs. are still killed occasionally. The maximum weight attained by these bears is not known, but the greatest reliable weight of which I know is 1,200 lbs. Weights exceeding 1,500 lbs. are frequently reported, but these are estimates and cannot be considered accurate.

The largest grizzlies in a given region are males, but some females exceed small males in size. There is rarely size-uniformity in a grizzly population. The majority of animals may be of about the same size, but unusually large and unusually small individuals are seen. Size depends in part upon age and condition. After full growth is attained, an individual bear varies in weight according to the season of the year, depending upon the amount of fat present. Very old animals, usually with broken and badly worn teeth, are often in poor condition, and in general have the lowest weights.

Measurements of external proportions of bears are so few that they have little or no value at present. Age, size, and sex all influence the various dimensions. Sport hunters regularly measure the length and width of the green hide.

I have made a few observations on these measurements, which confirm the obvious conclusion that they are worthless for scientific purposes, since they reflect only the enthusiasm and strength of the hunter and his guide.

It is noteworthy that maximum size in Ursus arctos is attained where an unlimited supply of high protein food is available. Thus, on Kodiak and Afognak islands, and, to a lesser degree, on the Alaska Peninsula, heavy salmon runs provide food during all of the warmer months when the bears are active. On Kodiak Island, the red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka (Walbaum)) is available from late June to late September in the streams, and from late May at least until late November along the lake shores. Other species are abundant for shorter periods during the summer months. The same situation exists in Asia. In northeastern Siberia, particularly Kamchatka, great salmon runs occur. Here also U. arctos beringianus attains the largest size of any Eurasian form of U. arctos. For this form, Bobrinskiy et al. (1944) gave a maximum skull length of 445 mm. According to Johnson (1947) this bear attains a weight of 560 kg. in winter.

Colour: The colour of grizzlies is highly variable and, in my opinion, it has little or no taxonomic value. In the Brooks Range grizzlies range in colour from very pale (near Ridgway's Ivory Yellow,1 but paler) to nearly black (near Blackish Brown). Some animals are entirely light-coloured, except for the legs and belly, but most have the buffy colour restricted to the head, shoulders and back. Despite the great range in colour, the general pattern is essentially the same: head and shoulders lighter, back and sides dark, belly dark, and legs and feet darkest. Even the very pale specimens have dark feet and legs, usually with a reddish tinge. It is true that the bears of a given region may be of predominantly one colour, but lighter or darker specimens are almost always observed. The bears of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak-Afognak may, in general, be more uniformly coloured, but on Kodiak Island I have examined specimens as light-coloured as any observed on the mainland, while others are very dark.

Claws: Grizzly claws are very variable in shape, size, and colour. Shape (curvature) and size depend mainly upon season of the year. Animals killed in the early spring usually have long, well-formed claws, but later they become badly worn through use. Extent of wear depends upon the terrain, rocky soils causing more rapid wear than others, particularly in places where bears frequently dig for rodents. When other food (e.g., salmon) is available, less wear results. Claw shape and size also appear to vary individually.

Glaw colour varies from white to nearly black, and is related to some extent to the degree of pigmentation of the fur. Very pale-coloured bears in general have white or very light claws.
Internal characteristics

The skull: The differentiation of grizzly "species" has been based mainly on skull characters. Among these, skull size, relative proportions, and details of dentition have been considered important. Merriam (1918, p. 13) stated: "Cranial and dental characters among the big bears are very subtle. As a rule comparison of any two skulls of essentially the same size brings to light so many resemblances that one is likely to infer a far closer relationship than actually exists. This is because the big bears of the genus Ursus are such a closely interrelated group that the resemblances far outnumber the differences. Hence the greatest caution is necessary to avoid misleading conclusions."

The paucity of good series of bear skulls with complete data from any one region has in part prevented an evaluation of individual variation. However, even when good material has been available, the problem of variation has been little considered. Regarding the Alaska Peninsula bears, Merriam (1918, p. 125) stated: "Skulls of adult males which it seems necessary to call gyas present a surprisingly wide range in size and form. Among them are three quite different types which if isolated would undoubtedly develop into very distinct species." Merriam did not state why, in this case, he considered such "different types" to be conspecific. On the other hand, he considered U. kidderi kidderi Merriam, which has the same range as U. gyas, to be specifically distinct despite his statement: "Males of kidderi are sometimes hard to tell from females of gyas. .. (p. 107)". As far as I can determine, a single form, showing the usual variability, is found on the Alaska Peninsula. Its status is discussed in more detail below.

Bears occurring on Kodiak Island, hitherto known as U. middendorffi Merriam, are also quite variable. It is true that large adults show cranial characteristics which are relatively constant, but nevertheless some individuals differ strikingly from such "typical" specimens. I have examined a large series of skulls of this form, and Allen (1903b) studied 30 skulls of Kodiak bears and summarized their measurements. This form is likewise considered further below.

A small series of bears from the Alaska Range, designated as Ursus toklat Merriam, is in the collection of the U.S. National Museum. The skulls which I have examined have been relatively uniform, but show minor structural differences. The bears of the Mount McKinley region have been observed by several workers in the field, and nearly all of them have remarked on obvious physical differences.
The most significant bear material I have obtained consists of 22 skulls, with full collecting data, from arctic Alaska. These specimens, taken in the Brooks Range, exhibit unusual cranial variation. Some brief remarks on variation in Brooks Range bears were included in another paper (Rausch, 1951), under the species name U. richardsoni Swainson. Among these skulls, several adult male specimens differ conspicuously from one another, despite their having been killed in the same general region. Four specimens of unusual interest are shown in Fig. 3, and their measurements are given in Table I. All but one of these bears (orig. No. 9849; U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 293782) were killed in the Anaktuvuk Pass region of the central Brooks Range. They probably comprised interbreeding members of a single population. These animals, mature or aged males, were among 35 bears killed over a period of five years in the Anaktuvuk Pass region.


According to Merriam's system of bear classification, it would be acceptable to consider each of these 4 animals representative of a different species. I am convinced, however, that such is not the case. In another paper (Rausch, 1951, p. 165), it was stated, regarding the Alaskan distribution of U. richardsoni, that it "is widely distributed, and in Alaska its range appears to encompass at least the entire region north of the southern limits of the Brooks Range, including the Arctic Slope." It is necessary here to discuss also some of the species recorded from farther east, particularly in northern Canada.

In 1949 I studied pertinent bear material from arctic North America which has been deposited in various museums. Dr. R. M. Anderson kindly reviewed with me much of the material in the collections of the National Museum of Canada, among which were the type of U. internationalis Merriam, a large series of U. richardsoni which had been collected by Dr. Anderson, and a series of U. macfarlani Merriam. The study of this material and comparisons with Alaskan specimens led to the conclusion that all were con-specific. This was substantiated by the study of material in the U.S. National Museum, and in the American Museum of Natural History. Further work in Alaska has supported this conclusion.

As a result of the earlier work, it was concluded that a single species of bear extended across the entire North American Arctic. The variation observed in the Brooks Range bears has permitted a better concept of normal individual variation in grizzlies, and other Alaskan "species" may now be considered.

The comparison of my material with single specimens supposedly representing different species obviously had little value, since it was not possible to distinguish specific differences from individual differences. Where small series were available, as with U. toklat Merriam, from the Mount McKinley region, and Ursus sp. from Jarvis Creek, only small inconsistencies were sometimes noted. In light of observations made on the Brooks Range specimens, such differences cannot be considered significant. Moreover, the examination of miscellaneous specimens from Alaska south of the Brooks Range has failed to disclose anything to support the concept that any of these differ specifically from the more northern specimens.


On the Status of Some Arctic Mammals (1953) PDF LINK: pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic6-2-91.pdf




Also....



Abstract

Variation in size of brown bears, Ursus arctos Linnaeus, indicated by condylobasal length of the skull, has been studied in 357 specimens comprising series from 26 regions in North America. These were selected by criteria defined from a previous study of growth in black bears, U. americanus Pallas, since it was determined that the growth pattern is essentially the same for the two species. Variation in mean condylobasal length in the series studied is clinal; a well-defined gradient exists along the coastal zone from Bella Coola, British Columbia, to the end of the Alaska Peninsula, with mean condylobasal length increasing from south to northwest. A similar gradient was evident along the Arctic Coast, beginning in the region of Coronation Gulf. In the interior, small mean values were obtained for samples from the western Yukon Territory, with mean size increasing toward both the southeast and the northwest. It is concluded that formal recognition of segments of intergrading populations of brown bears at the subspecific level is not justified. Brown bears on Kodiak–Afognak–Shuyak Islands comprise a reproductively isolated population possessing distinctive cranial characteristics, and to them the name U. arctos middendorffi Merriam is applicable. It is proposed that U. a. horribilis Ord be used for brown bears over the greater part of the range of the species in North America. The number of subspecies of U. arctos recognized in Eurasia also may be reduced, with the study of comparable series of skulls.

GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN SIZE IN NORTH AMERICAN BROWN BEARS, URSUS ARCTOS L., AS INDICATED BY CONDYLOBASAL LENGTH (1963) PDF LINK: www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z63-005


Update: On October 6, 2012, Robert L. Rausch passed away at his home on Bainbridge Island, Wash. His obituary can be read here: link.

[grrraaahhh]

A PIONEER OF BROWN BEAR STUDIES: WILLARD A. TROYER.





Will Troyer spent his thirty-year career in Alaska as a biologist with the U.S. Department of the Interior. He began his pioneering study of bears in the 1950s as manager of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, where he developed live trapping techniques that generated crucial insights into bear behavior and biology. After retirement he continued to study bears and guide photographers along the Katmai coastline. Will has published numerous scientific and popular articles and photographs in Alaska Wildlife magazines and journals. In 1987, he received the prestigious Olaus Murie Award for his conservation efforts. He holds in Masters degree in Wildlife Technology.


References

Troyer, W.A. Into Brown Bear Country (2005).

Troyer, W.A. Bear Wrangler: Memoirs of an Alaska Pioneer Biologist (2008).

[grrraaahhh]

Dr. Ian Stirling

Dr. Ian Stirling is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta. He holds a B.S. and M.S. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a Ph.D. from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he studied the population ecology of Weddell seals in Antarctica.

He has studied polar bears throughout the Canadian Arctic for over 37 years with the Canadian Wildlife Service. His long-term studies of polar bears in Western Hudson Bay, one of the world's most southerly populations, confirmed the negative effects of climate warming. The population has dropped 22% since 1987. Dr. Stirling has also studied the bears of the Southern Beaufort Sea and Canadian High Arctic for several decades as well their interrelationships with seals and sea ice. He is the author of four books for the public on bears, including Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species, considered the definitive work on the biology of the polar bear.