California State Animal: Grizzly Bear

"Before 1769 ... Grizzlies, not humans, sat at the top of the food chain. Ten thousand of the agressive, powerful bears roamed California in packs, fearing no other beings. They ate meat from beached whales, salmon from the rivers, and acrons from the oak trees and they intimidated mountain lions and humans into abandoning their kills."

The Elusive Eden: A New History of California by Rihcard Rice, William Bullough and Richard Orsi
The last California grizzley bear was killed at Horse Corral Meadows in Tulare County in August 1922.