Grizzly bears have a reputation for being ferocious, terrifying predators that most people try to avoid in the wild. Even their taxonomic name, Ursus arktos terrible, translated as a terrible bear. The incredible size, speed, strength and senses of grizzly bears make them very capable and very dangerous. Which raises the question how big can they get? Despite the fact that in this article we see a large grizzly bear, in this article we will talk about it.
What is a grizzly bear?
Grizzly bears are a subspecies of the brown bear that currently lives in North America. There are more subspecies of the brown bear than any other species of bears! Other subspecies of brown bear include the Kodiak bear of the Kodiak Islands in Alaska, the Eurasian brown bear, the Syrian brown bear, the Tibetan blue bear, the Manchu grizzly bear, the Himalayan brown bear, the Gobi bear, and the Kamchatka brown bear. There were other subspecies, but now they are extinct. Despite the wide geographical distribution of brown bears around the world, grizzly bears are found only in Alaska, western Canada and the northwestern United States.
Grizzly bears are omnivores and therefore feed on both plants and animals. Unlike their close relatives, polar bears, grizzly bears are hypocrites. Polar bears are classified as hypercarnivorous because their diet consists of more than 70% meat. However, grizzly bears are hypocrites because their diet is less than 30% meat and depends more on other food sources. 30% of their diet, which includes meat, consists of large prey such as elk, elk, caribou, white-tailed deer, mule deer, bison, and bighorn sheep. Grizzlies also hunt salmon, trout and perch. The herbivorous component of their diet includes herbs, nuts, tubers, and a variety of berries.
How do grizzly bears compare to other types of bears?
Brown bears are one of eight bear species. However, each species has subspecies of numerus, including the grizzly bear. The largest of all bear species and one of the largest land mammals in North America, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus). Male polar bears usually weigh between 770 and 1540 pounds! The largest subspecies of brown bear is the Kodiak bear, which usually weighs 660-1320 pounds! The smallest bear species is the sun bear, which typically weighs 55 to 143 pounds.
How do grizzly bears get so big?
Grizzly bears reach their largest size in preparation for hibernation. Bears usually hibernate in dens, tree hollows, and holes they dig in the ground. For more information on hibernation and where bears hibernate, click here. Hibernation is when an animal enters a dormant state that slows down its metabolic rate. In winter, when food is scarce, grizzly bears hibernate to feed on the resources they accumulate and consume before winter arrives. The low metabolic rate associated with hibernation means the bear uses less energy due to slower breathing, lower heart rate, and lower body temperature. The time to hibernation is characterized by hyperphagia, which means overeating. During this time, grizzly bears can gain 400 pounds!
Grizzly bears are generally large for many reasons with an evolutionary explanation. One interesting phenomenon in evolutionary biology related to size is known as Bergman’s rule. Bergman’s rule states that species and subspecies that inhabit a colder environment will be larger than subspecies that inhabit a warmer environment. This is because larger, rounder animals have a better surface area to volume ratio, which is an advantage for keeping warm. For example, the grizzly bear in the north is much larger than the sun bear in Southeast Asia.
What’s the biggest grizzly bear ever recorded?
The largest grizzly bear ever recorded was actually a skull found by a taxidermist in 1976! In 2014, the second largest grizzly skull was recorded from a hunter who shot a bear with a skull length of 27 and 6/16 inches. Because bears are so large and often skinned where they are shot, the weight of these giants is usually not measured.
So how much did the heaviest grizzly bear weigh? The most frequently mentioned giant grizzly bear weighed around 1200 pounds.
This figure will be different from what you might read on the Internet. There is a common story about a U.S. Forest Service worker who shot massive grizzly bear that weighed 1,600 pounds. Various reports even claim that the bear was a cannibal and was shot down with a pistol. Unfortunately, these reports are trumped-up facts of a real hunt, where a bear was shot, measuring 10 feet 6 inches from head to toe and possibly weighing up to 1200 pounds. Is it still very big bear, but that’s far from the £ 1,600 requirement.
Grizzlies can probably reach more weight, so maybe we will soon see a new record size. The Kodiak brown bear has a world record of 1,656 pounds (more on that below).
However, this large bear weighs 1,200 pounds, well above the average size of grizzly bears. On average, female grizzly bears weigh 290-400 pounds. Male grizzly bears typically weigh between 400 and 790 pounds, however coastal populations can average 899 pounds. Typical weights vary widely depending on geographic distribution, environmental factors and available resources.
How large are the largest of the other species?
The largest polar bear ever recorded was caught in Alaska and weighed 2,209 pounds! That’s three times the size of an average grizzly! The largest wild kodiak bear ever recorded was found in Alaska and weighed 1,656 pounds! The largest American black bear was a male shot in New Brunswick, Canada that weighed 902 pounds.
How are grizzly bears doing today?
Grizzly bear populations have rapidly declined in size over the past few decades. Outside of Alaska, only 1,500 grizzly bears live in the United States. The once abundant California grizzly bear that adorns its national flag is now extinct. Conservation efforts have included the creation of protected areas and parks, protection under the Endangered Species Act, and attempts to unify populations that have been reproductively isolated due to artificial barriers. A notable organization at the forefront of efforts to conserve grizzly bears in the lower 48 states is the Inter-Agency Grizzly Bear Rescue Committee. This committee has identified five different “recovery zones” within which they implement different monitoring and conservation strategies. Grizzly bears, as a subspecies, do not have a conservation status listed on the IUCN Red List.