Giclee reprint of an original lithograph from the Zoology Volume of Albert du Petit-Thouars’ Voyage autour du Monde sur la Fregate La Venus, published in Paris in 1846. This highly influential multi-volume masterwork documented extensive biological collections gathered across the Pacific Ocean, the Galapagos Islands, California, and the Indian Ocean. The mammal (mammalogy) section of the text was prepared in part by the celebrated French zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, featuring meticulous descriptions and striking hand-colored plates of newly cataloged terrestrial and marine mammals encountered during the voyage.

The phrase "De l'ours terrible" used on this plate serves as the historical French title for the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis). This descriptive title, which translates to "Of the terrible bear," accompanies the archaic scientific classification Ursus ferox (ferocious bear), a binomial assigned to the North American grizzly by early naturalists who were awed by the predator's massive size and fierce reputation.