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Comment by russell_h | Hacker News Reader

For what it’s worth, there aren’t thought to be any brown bears left in California; the closest ones are in Washington or maybe Idaho.

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This is largely a matter of local lexical confusion. In the US, "brown bear" can mean two things: a black bear with a brown coat (ursus americanus), or a grizzly (ursus arctos horribilis, which makes me giggle every time).

Across the pond, "brown bear" probably means ursus arctos arctos, a cousin of our own more foul-tempered beasties.

But when a Californian says "brown bear", usually they just mean a brown-coated black bear (https://bear.org/black-bear-color-phases/).

> But when a Californian says "brown bear", usually they just mean a brown-coated black bear (https://bear.org/black-bear-color-phases/).

Well that's confusing. Whenever I hear brown bear (in hunting contexts, etc) I assume grizzly.

Idaho. There hasn't been a confirmed grizzly bear sighting in Washington since the late 90s. They're presumed to be extinct in WA.

They're there, though. https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/gri...

EDIT: Also https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/grizzly-bear-distribut...

I hadn't seen that news about someone seeing a grizzly in the Cascades. I've been to the North Cascades several times. Ranger guidance has always been "There aren't really any meaningful populations of grizzlies here. We're pretty sure that, if there is one here, it's a transient from Canada."

You still have to take bear precautions there because of black bears, though.

Probably. "Confirmed" just means that, if someone saw one, nobody was able to officially corroborate the sighting.

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