Brown Bear

Brown Bear

Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is a large bear found mostly in North America and Eurasia. Some people refer to brown bears as bruins.

Brown bears can weigh anywhere between 250-1500 pounds and stand 5'6" to 9' feet tall. Males are generally 35-50% larger than females. Brown bears have furry coats in colors of brown, blonde, black, or even a combination of those colors. Their tail is approximately 4-5 inches. Like all bears, brown bears are plantigrades and can stand up on their hind legs for long periods of time although they usually walk on all four legs.

Brown bears have a large mass of muscle over their shoulders which distinguishes them from other bear species. They are very powerful, and can break the backs of large prey. A brown bear has huge paws with claws up to 6 inches long. The claws are primarily used for digging and have relatively blunt points. A brown bears head is large and round with a concave facial profile, a characteristic used to distinguish them from other bears.

The brown bear is primarily a nocturnal animal. During the summer months they can gain up to 400 pounds of fat, which helps the bear to make it through winter, when it becomes very lethargic, but not fully hibernated. They can be woken easily and like to den in a protective spots such as a caves, crevices, or hollow logs during the winter months. Brown bears are mostly solitary, although they sometimes gather in large numbers at major food sources and form social hierarchies based on age and size.

There are several kinds of brown bears, such as the Kodiak bear, which is the largest of the brown bear species.

The brown bear is the national animal of Finland, where there is a large population. There are also large populations of brown bears in Russia, Canada and the United States (particularly in Alaska). As of 2008, there is reported to be approximately 200,000 brown bears in the world.

A brown bear is an omnivore. Its diet consists of mostly vegetation and fish, but they will also eat small land animals and even sometimes will feed on larger animals such as deer, in which they sometimes drive off wolfpacks and big cats from their prey.

Some other species of brown bear are:

  • Atlas Bear
  • Gobi Bear
  • Himalayan Brown Bear
  • Kamchatka Brown Bear