Here’s a bear – I am sure a California grizzly bear* – holding the State of California in its paws. The flowers are California poppies, the State flower. (There is little natural history exhibit on display in the International Terminal at San Francisco airport).
*California grizzly bear was a sub-species of the large North American brown bear. The last hunted California grizzly was shot in Tulare County, California in August 1922. Later, in 1924, a grizzly known to roam an area of the Sierra Madre Mountains (Santa Barbara County) was spotted for the last time, and thereafter, grizzlies were never seen again in California.
