California Grizzly Bears Are Extinct But Some Want To Reintroduce Their ‘Cousins’ To Sierra A stuffed grizzly bear from Canada — a DNA cousin of the extinct California Grizzly Bear — is on display at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. Imagine a creature pushing 1,000 pounds, almost 10 feet high on their hind legs, and about as finicky eaters as a house rat or a domestic pig rambling across the Altamont Pass. This is not a sci-fi animal but one that roamed the Northern San Joaquin Valley, the Diablo Range, and much of California for centuries up until 170 years ago or so. They were the California Grizzly Bears.