How is a grizzly bear different from a brown bear? How much can a brown, polar bear and grizzly weigh? Weight of a grizzly bear

Grizzly, from the English Grizzly bear or gray bear, denotes a name referring to one or more American subspecies brown bear. This is one of the largest and most dangerous predatory animals currently inhabiting our planet.

Description and appearance

The grizzly is a wild forest animal with simply incredible large sizes and an extremely ferocious disposition, which allowed it to be classified as the most ruthless and bloodthirsty species of predatory animals. The scientific name of the grizzly bear is horribilis, which means “terrible or terrible”.

Appearance

Grizzlies are characterized by a fairly massive physique. Distinctive feature The grizzly bear is represented by long, 15-16-centimeter claws, thanks to which the predator is completely unable to climb trees, but is excellent at hunting its prey. The claws are conical and arched.

This is interesting! Not only adults, but also young individuals are distinguished by very powerful and well-developed jaws, allowing them to hunt fairly large prey.

The structure of the body, as well as appearance such a bear is very similar to a brown bear, but larger and heavier, clumsy and at the same time incredibly strong. Unlike Eurasian bears, North American bears have a characteristic low skull, and also have well-developed nasal bones and a wide, straight forehead.

The tail part is noticeably shorter. While walking, adult bears waddle heavily and characteristically sway their body.

Grizzly Bear Dimensions

The height of the animal standing on its hind legs is about 2.5 meters with a weight of 380-410 kg. The neck part has a very characteristic, powerful hump, which gives the animal incredible strength. With one blow of the front paw, an adult bear is capable of killing even a fairly large wild moose or its smaller or weaker relative.

Important! The largest grizzly bear was recognized as a male who lived in the coastal zone and weighed 680 kg. Its height when rising on its hind legs reached three meters, and its height at the shoulder girdle was one and a half meters.

The closest relatives of the grizzly bear are. The animal's ears have a pronounced rounded shape. Animals that live in coastal areas are much larger than those that inhabit deep waters. mainland. If the average weight of a mainland male is approximately 270-275 kg, then coastal individuals can weigh 400 kg or more.

Skin color

The shoulder part, neck area and belly of the grizzly bear are covered with dark brown thick fur, but at the ends there is a lighter coloring, giving the coat an attractive grayish tint. It is thanks to this shade that the species got its name grizzly, which means “gray or gray-haired.”

Compared to the more common brown bears, the grizzly bear's fur has a more intensive development; it is not only longer, but also much fluffier, so it retains heat well.

Lifespan

Average life expectancy wild bears Grizzly bears in most cases depend on their habitat and feeding habits. In most cases carnivorous mammal lives no more than a quarter of a century in the wild, and a little more than thirty years in correct content in captivity.

Where does the grizzly bear live?

The grizzly bear population declined significantly around the end of the nineteenth century, when mass shootings of the predator were observed by farmers defending their farms from bear attacks. livestock.

Despite the fact that the area natural spread grizzly for last century has undergone some significant changes, this predator is still most often found in the western part of North America, as well as in the southern states, ranging from North Dakota or Missouri. In the northern territories, the distribution range reaches British Columbia and Alaska.

Bear lifestyle

Grizzly bears hibernate annually, which can last for about six months. In order to prepare for hibernation, beast of prey consumes a significant amount of nutritious food, after which it settles into a den.

This is interesting! Before hibernation, an adult animal gains on average about 180-200 kg of fat.

During hibernation, the animal does not eat and does not at all fulfill its natural needs. Male grizzlies emerge from hibernation around mid-March, and females a little later - in April or May.

Grizzly bear food and prey

Grizzlies usually hunt large or medium-sized mammals. Extraction predatory bear moose often become, as well as deer and sheep.

A significant part of the diet is represented by fish, including salmon and trout. Among other things, they are eaten by bears wild birds different types and their eggs, as well as various rodents.

The grizzly prefers to use pine nuts, various tubers and berries as plant food. An important part of the grizzly's diet is meat, so the predator can hunt animals such as marmots, ground squirrels, lemmings and voles. Most big catch grizzlies are considered to be bison and elk, as well as the carcasses of whales, sea lions and seals washed up on the coastal zone.

This is interesting! To feast on the honey of wild bees, a grizzly easily knocks over an adult tree, after which it completely destroys the insects’ nest.

About three-quarters of the diet consists of plant foods in the form of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and cranberries. After the glaciers disappear, bears raid fields with various legumes. In very hungry years, the animal gets close to a person’s home, where livestock can become its prey. Attract wild beast landfills can also food waste located near tourist campsites and tent camps.

Reproduction and offspring

The mating season of gray bears or grizzlies usually occurs in June. It is at this time that males are able to smell females even at very long distance, measuring several kilometers. Grizzlies stay in pairs for no more than ten days, after which they return to the solitary lifestyle already familiar to this species.

This is interesting! Unfortunately, not all cubs manage to survive and grow up. Sometimes babies become very easy prey for hungry adult male grizzlies and other predators.

Gestation by the female takes approximately 250 days, after which two or three cubs are born in January-February. Average weight a newborn bear cub, as a rule, does not exceed 410-710 g. Grizzly cubs are born not only naked, but also blind, and also completely toothless, so nutrition in the first months is represented exclusively by mother's milk.

The first time the cubs come out of the den into fresh air is only in late spring, around the end of April or beginning of May. It is from this moment that the female begins to gradually accustom her offspring to obtaining food independently.

As cold weather approaches, the mother bear and cubs begin searching for a new, more spacious den. Bear cubs become independent only in the second year of life, when they are already able to get enough food for themselves. Females reach sexual maturity only at three years, and males about a year later. The adult animal leads a solitary lifestyle characteristic of the species, uniting in pairs only during the mating season.

This is interesting! A special feature of the grizzly bear is the ability to interbreed with individuals of ordinary polar bears, as a result of which fertile offspring appear. Such hybrids are called polar grizzlies.

Population and species status

Currently, grizzly bears are protected, so their main habitat is represented by national parks in America. A significant number of individuals inhabit Yellowstone and Mount McKinley parks, as well as the Glacier park area, from where grizzly bears spread to other states.

A small population of wild predators remains on the American mainland, in northwest Washington and Idaho. The total grizzly bear population today is approximately fifty thousand individuals. Once every four years, authorized hunting of this formidable predator is permitted in Alaska.

According to most scientists and renowned zoologists, humans themselves are to blame for a significant portion of all collisions with grizzly bears. In the wild, bears always try to avoid people, so if the rules of behavior are observed, a person does not have the opportunity to encounter such a bloodthirsty predator.

However, we must remember that for all its clubfoot and clumsiness, an adult angry wild animal can run about a hundred meters at the speed of a galloping horse, so it is almost impossible to escape from such a predator.

The grizzly bear is a subspecies of the brown bear. Lives in North America. This is Alaska most Western Canada, northwestern regions USA, including states such as Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington. In Wyoming, bears are primarily found in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. There are about 25 thousand of these animals in Canada. They live in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. In 2003, clubfoot predators were discovered on Melville Island in the Arctic latitudes. Most bears live in Alaska. There are 30 thousand individuals there. The animals live along the coast, where there is a lot of salmon.

Males and females differ in size and weight. Males weigh on average 180-360 kg, and females 130-180 kg. Average length the body of this subspecies reaches 198 cm, and average height shoulders is 102 cm. Animals living in coastal areas are larger than their counterparts living inland. The average weight of the latter is 272 kg, while coastal males weigh on average 408 kg.

Most large male, which lived in the coastal zone, weighed 680 kg. Standing on its hind legs, it reached 3 meters, and the height at the shoulders was 1.5 meters. The fur color of grizzly bears is usually brown, with some graying in places. The fur on the legs is darker than on the body. A hump is clearly visible on the back. The ears have a rounded shape.

Reproduction and lifespan

These bears lead a solitary lifestyle. Only in coastal areas do they gather in groups near streams, lakes and rivers during salmon spawning. Females produce offspring once a year. Most often there are 2 cubs in a litter. They weigh about 500 g. Grizzly bears have extremely low reproduction. Puberty occurs at the age of 5 years. Females become pregnant in the summer and delay implantation of the embryo until hibernation. If the female has not eaten well in the summer, she may have a miscarriage.

The cubs stay with their mother for 2 years, and during this time she does not mate. The period between births can be 3 years or more. It all depends on the conditions environment. The gestation period for these bears is 180-250 days. Bear cubs are always born in winter in a den, when the mother is dormant. Newborns feed on mother's milk until summer, and in warm time years, in addition to milk, they begin to consume solid food.

IN wildlife A grizzly bear lives 22-26 years. Females live longer than males by an average of 4 years. This is explained by the fact that males take part in mating fights, which sometimes end in the death of one of the rivals. In captivity, these bears live up to 40 and even 44 years. In the wild, the oldest recorded clubfoot predator lived to be 39 years old.

Behavior and nutrition

These bears hibernate during the winter every year. It lasts 5-7 months. To prepare for hibernation, animals consume large number food and make a den for themselves. During hibernation, they do not eat or relieve their natural needs. For males, hibernation ends in mid-March, for females in April, early May. Before going into hibernation, bears become extremely voracious. But in areas where food is abundant, such gluttony is not observed. Before lying down in its lair, the animal waits for a snowstorm. This reduces the chances of predators finding the den. They are usually made on the northern mountain slopes, at an altitude of more than 1.8 thousand meters above sea level.

It should be noted that the grizzly bear that lives in coastal areas spends less time hibernating than its counterpart that lives inland. The diet consists of plants and animals. Hunting is carried out on large mammals, if any. These are elk, deer, sheep. The majority of the food consists of fish - salmon, trout. Birds and their eggs, as well as rodents, are eaten. Among plant foods, preference is given to pine nuts, tubers, and berries. Meat is an important part of the diet, so the clubfoot predator regularly catches marmots, gophers, lemmings, and voles. The largest prey are bison and elk. In coastal areas, animals eat washed-up whale carcasses. The dead are also eaten sea ​​lions and seals.

Plant foods make up up to 80% of the diet. These are blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries. It all depends on the availability of these berries. If there is a lot of food, then grizzly bears feed in groups. They visit meadows together after the glaciers disappear and feed on legumes. But when there is little food, clubfoot predators lead a solitary lifestyle. Competitors in the wild include gray wolves and black bears. The latter try to avoid encounters with grizzlies. As for wolves, sometimes there are collisions with them.

Relationships with people

These powerful beasts, as a rule, avoid contact with people. Attacks most often occur when the female is protecting her offspring. The bite of this animal is very powerful, and the injuries received by people can be extremely serious. Therefore, it is recommended to go to the forest where grizzly bears live in groups of 6-8 people. This significantly reduces the likelihood of an attack in the event of an accidental collision with a strong and ferocious clubfoot predator.

Contrary to popular belief, the grizzly bear is not an independent species. Most scientists agree that this is a subspecies of the common brown bear. However, many legends and speculations are associated with it, rooted in the deep past.

What is a grizzly bear?

It was not by chance that this bear was called the word “Grizzly”. This “name” was given to him by the settlers who first saw the animal in wild forests. The color of the classic grizzly bear is not much different from the Russian brown bear, but from a distance it looks gray. "Grizzly" means "grey".

Currently, grizzly bears live in Canada, Alaska and the United States. Moreover, the bulk falls on Alaska. By the way, the name “grizzly” is extremely controversial. So much so that some doctrines do not recognize it and prefer to call all bears that fit the parameters “North American brown bear.”

Externally, grizzlies are very similar to Russian brown bears. This is a large animal whose weight can reach 450 kilograms. The fur is thick and brownish-brown in color. Grizzly is very strong. With a blow of its paw, it can break the bones of prey, and also effectively catch up with it and climb trees.

Grizzly bear lifestyle

The grizzly bear lives in dense forests, but gravitates to the shores of lakes and rivers. This happens because a significant portion of its diet is fish. Grizzly is an excellent fisherman. He successfully fishes in running water, and sometimes manages to grab it when the fish jumps out of the water. Bears living in coastal areas prefer salmon fish.

Not everywhere where a grizzly bear lives there is a body of water. There are also purely forest bears of this type. In this case, the food becomes the fruits of plants, honey, various rhizomes, and the green mass of some types of plants. Grizzlies also do not disdain carrion.

The animal has very developed hearing and sense of smell. Therefore, a bear can detect prey from a distance of several kilometers. The Grizzly is an excellent runner. When chasing someone, it can accelerate to a speed of 60 km/h, which leaves most applicants no chance of being eaten.

There is an opinion that the grizzly is an extremely scary bear that, without hesitation, kills the person it meets. In fact, in this regard, it is also not much different from the classic Siberian bear. Yes, an attack on a person is possible, but not necessary. The grizzly bear does not feed on people and is not the first to attack. There are not many cases where a bear’s aggression towards people could not be explained. As a rule, only wounded grizzlies attack, or those to whom a person has already caused serious inconvenience. A huge number of other living creatures on the planet behave in exactly the same way - from animals to insects.

Grizzly and man

The relationship between grizzly bears and humans is wary, on both sides. People try not to meet the bear, but he prefers not to show himself. But, as in Russia, there are circumstances that force grizzlies to come to people. First of all, this is a lack of food in natural habitats. In search of food, grizzlies visit farm plantations and tourist sites, and go out into populated areas.

Such visits, as a rule, do not end well. A bear is a wild animal and must be handled with care. There are known cases of attacks on tourists who first actively fed the bear and then disturbed it while eating.

Another thing is small bear cubs. Born in captivity and from birth those who know the person, they are quite good at taming. Grizzly bear cubs are intelligent, highly trainable, and can even stand up for their human owner.

Domain: Eukaryotes

Kingdom: Animals

Type: Chordata

Class: Mammals

Squad: Predatory

Family: Bearish

Genus: Bears

View: Brown bear

Subspecies: Grizzly

Habitat

Grizzly bear, common in the Americas:

  • Alaska;
  • Canada;
  • Montana (Yellowstone);
  • Northwest Washington;

They migrated from Asia to North America, according to some sources, fifty thousand years ago, according to others, a hundred thousand years ago. The bear population has declined greatly over the past centuries.

According to official data, in 2000 there were about 250 of them, and by 2005 there were 600 individuals. The gray grizzly bear lives in the dense forests of North America. Leads a secretive lifestyle; under cover of night he can visit nearby farms. Each predatory individual marks its territory, scratching tree trunks with huge non-retractable claws and leaving noticeable marks on them.

Grizzly appearance

In its size and appearance, the Grizzly bear is very similar to the Siberian brown bear. He is also very strong, massive and scary. The Grizzly is distinguished by its long claws, which help it to be an excellent hunter. Despite this, the animal is not able to climb trees.

Grizzly growth can reach from 2.5 to 4 meters. It’s scary to even imagine such a huge beast. How much does a Grizzly bear weigh? The average body weight is about 500 kilograms. A very large individual can weigh up to 1 ton. Female gray bears usually weigh less.

Grizzlies have very well developed muscles, their body is strong and thickly covered with fur. The color is mostly brown, the back and shoulder blades can be gray. If you look at the animal from afar, it may seem that it is completely gray. That is why it bears such a name, since in translation from English “Grizzly” means “Gray”.

The head of the beast is powerful, with small round ears. The muzzle is elongated, the nose is black, and the eyes are small. The jaws are well developed and the teeth are strong.

Behavior and lifestyle

The brown bear is active more often at dusk, in the mornings and evenings, but on rainy days it wanders throughout the day. Daytime vigil is typical for bears in the mountains of Siberia. The seasonal cyclicality of life is clearly expressed.

Bears are very sensitive; they navigate the terrain mainly with the help of hearing and smell; their eyesight is weak. Brown bears can smell rotting meat more than 2.5 km away.

Although the bear's body weight is large and it seems clumsy, in fact it is a silent, fast and easy-to-move animal. The bear runs extremely fast - with the agility of a good horse - at a speed of over 55 km/h. He is a good swimmer, can swim 6 km or even more, and willingly swims, especially in hot weather. In his youth, a brown bear climbs trees well, but in old age he does this reluctantly, although it cannot be said that he completely loses this ability. However, it moves in deep snow with difficulty.

When encountering a dangerous opponent, the bear emits a loud roar, stands on its hind legs and tries to knock down the enemy with blows of its front paws or grab him.
In the winter, looking for a den, bears can go far from their summer area.

The brown bear is a sedentary animal and only the young, having separated from the family, wander until they create their own family. Individual hunting areas are large and males have more than females. The bear marks and defends the boundaries of the areas. In the summer, male bears mark the boundaries of their territory by standing on their hind legs and tearing bark from trees with their claws. Such "boundary trees" are used different animals decades. In treeless mountains, the bear tears up any suitable objects - clay slopes or tourist tents (usually in the absence of the owners). To secure your tent, the easiest way to mark the boundary of your site is to urinate in several places at a distance of 10-20 meters around the camp. Boundaries are not respected only during the ripening period of oats and on the eve of hibernation.

In the summer, the bear settles down to rest, lying directly on the ground among grass, bushes or in moss, as long as the place is sufficiently secluded and safe.
In autumn, the animal has to take care of a reliable shelter on winter period until mid-spring.

Depending on climatic and other conditions, bears are in dens from October-November to March-April and later, i.e. approximately 5-6 months. Bears with cubs live the longest in dens, old males live the least. In different areas, winter sleep lasts from 75 to 195 days a year.

For a den, the bear chooses the most reliable, remote and dry corners, somewhere on an island of forest in the middle of a vast moss swamp. The animal sometimes comes here from several tens of kilometers away and, approaching the target, confuses its tracks in every possible way. Sometimes bears have favorite places wintering grounds, and they gather here from the whole area. So, once in Russia, 12 dens were discovered on an area of ​​about 20 hectares.

Very often, dens are located in holes protected by windbreaks or roots of fallen trees. In some areas, animals dig deep dens in the ground, and in the mountains they occupy caves and rock crevices. Often bears limit themselves to open lying down in dense young spruce trees, near a tree or even in an open clearing, having dragged there a bunch of moss and spruce branches in the form big nest. Sometimes a bear makes a den right in the dug-up anthill of red forest ants. Pregnant female bears make deeper, more spacious and warmer dens than males do. The bear lines the finished den with moss, dry grass, pine branches, leaves and hay. Over time, the den is covered with snow from above, so that only a small hole for ventilation remains (the brow), the edges of which are in severe frosts covered with frost.

Grizzly bear food and prey

Grizzlies usually hunt large or medium-sized mammals. The prey of the predatory bear is often elk, as well as deer and sheep.

A significant part of the diet is represented by fish, including salmon and trout. Among other things, bears eat wild birds of various species and their eggs, as well as various rodents.

The grizzly prefers to use pine nuts, various tubers and berries as plant food. An important part of the grizzly's diet is meat, so the predator can hunt animals such as marmots, ground squirrels, lemmings and voles. The largest prey of grizzlies is considered to be bison and moose, as well as the carcasses of whales, sea lions and seals washed up on the coastal zone.

To feast on the honey of wild bees, a grizzly easily knocks over an adult tree, after which it completely destroys the insects’ nest.

About three-quarters of the diet consists of plant foods in the form of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and cranberries. After the glaciers disappear, bears raid fields with various legumes. In very hungry years, the animal gets close to a person’s home, where livestock can become its prey. Landfills with food waste located near tourist campsites and tent camps can also attract wild animals.

Reproduction

These bears lead a solitary lifestyle. Only in coastal areas do they gather in groups near streams, lakes and rivers during salmon spawning. Females produce offspring once a year. Most often there are 2 cubs in a litter. They weigh about 500 g. Grizzly bears have extremely low reproduction rates. Puberty occurs at the age of 5 years. Females become pregnant in the summer and delay implantation of the embryo until hibernation. If the female has not eaten well in the summer, she may have a miscarriage.

The cubs stay with their mother for 2 years, and during this time she does not mate. The period between births can be 3 years or more. It all depends on environmental conditions. The gestation period for these bears is 180-250 days. Bear cubs are always born in winter in a den, when the mother is dormant. Newborns feed on mother's milk until summer, and in the warm season, in addition to milk, they begin to consume solid food.

In the wild, a grizzly bear lives 22-26 years. Females live longer than males by an average of 4 years. This is explained by the fact that males take part in mating fights, which sometimes end in the death of one of the rivals. In captivity, these bears live up to 40 and even 44 years. In the wild, the oldest recorded clubfoot predator lived to be 39 years old.

Grizzly and man

In its lifestyle, this bear is very similar to our bear and is also susceptible to hibernation. The grizzly bear lives in the mountain valleys and forests of Canada, British Columbia and the Yukon, but today their population is very small. And all because in the last century there was an intensified extermination of these animals.

Firstly, there have been cases of wounded animals attacking people in their own homes. And secondly, people feared for their domestic animals, although grizzlies never attacked livestock. At one time, there was a bounty on the head of every grizzly killed. There were more and more bear hunters, but fewer and fewer grizzlies themselves.

People said that he is not afraid of a person, on the contrary, he goes straight at him, whether he is on horseback or on foot, armed or unarmed, whether he has offended him or not. However, this is not the case at all. Every bear that smells a person or sees him from afar will try to run away from him in time. He also has the habit, when he wants to rest, to confuse his trail by making detours backwards or to the side, and lie down so that he can see or sense the approach of his pursuer from a distance.

But still, a person must beware of the grizzly bear. The danger of a grizzly bear is that it has poorly developed senses, especially vision. As already mentioned, people are not included in its diet, but it can easily attack a person, confusing him with some other animal. The grizzly bear, without hesitation, attacks if it seems that he is in danger.

Wounded animals attack more often, but here their aggression can be justified by the desire to desperately defend themselves. Females and males also attack aggressively when their cubs are in danger. In 1987, in a Canadian reserve, a grizzly bear killed two women who met a bear cub in the forest and decided to play with it.

  1. Most scientists and zoologists agree that people themselves are somehow to blame for all collisions with bears. In the wild, a bear will always avoid humans. Some tourists who try to feed the bears. They get used to it and begin to come to tourist tents and roads themselves. Such an insolent bear quickly loses its fear of humans. If the treat was not enough for him or he did not like it, he may get angry and attack.
  2. When attacked by a grizzly bear, it is advised to pretend to be dead. To do this, you should curl up in a ball, tucking your knees to your stomach, and clasping your neck with your hands.
  3. All bears are flat-footed: the sole and heel of the foot touch the ground equally. On each paw they have five long curved claws, with which the bear is equally good at digging the ground (or ice) and coping with prey.
  4. Even after receiving several bullets, the enraged bear continued the attack, and the hunters were not always able to escape - unless they had time to climb a tree or jump into a boat. Hard times came for the grizzly bear when the North American prairies were overrun by farmers. Grizzlies began to be intensively shot to protect livestock from them. Although they attacked livestock very rarely. There was a bonus for the head of each bear.
  5. IN ancient times grizzlies were complete masters of the American mountains and forests. They did not know any competitors or rivals except each other. Therefore, grizzlies were very self-confident and often attacked even people if they disturbed them or if they believed that they wanted to disturb them. Among all Indian tribes, defeating a grizzly bear was considered a feat.
  6. Size of newborns: The body length of a newborn bear cub is one tenth the body length of its mother.
  7. For comparison, the height of a newborn child is almost a third of the height of an adult.
  8. Grizzly, very controversial. Taiga fishermen, as well as hunters, claim that this animal is absolutely unpredictable. It is absolutely impossible to guess how he will behave when he meets, what will scare him and what, on the contrary, will anger him.
  9. Archaeological excavations have shown that the first bears; appeared in Europe 13 million years ago.
  10. The bear's paws are very wide with strong, blunt claws. They are used for fishing and self-defense. With one blow of its paw, a bear kills an animal the same size as itself.
  11. "Grizzle" means "gray" in English.
  12. The most famous of these bears was a huge grizzly bear nicknamed Old Moses. For 35 years - from 1869 to 1904 - this bear terrorized a huge area in Colorado. During this time he broke 800 heads of large cattle, not counting calves and small animals, and killed at least five people who tried to shoot him. But he himself never attacked a person if he was not touched.
  13. Eyewitnesses said that Old Moses even had a peculiar sense of humor - he loved to make purely bearish jokes. More than once, for example, he staged such a stunt: he would sneak up unnoticed on the campfires of travelers or gold miners and suddenly burst into the camp with a roar, throwing everything in his path. But he never hurt anyone unless they tried to shoot at him. He was simply pleased to see how people, scared to death, screaming in fear, rushing to the trees to escape.
  14. Having restored order and reminded who was boss, Old Moses peacefully walked away.
  15. Although at first glance the grizzly bear seems clumsy, he can run 50-100 meters at the speed of a galloping horse, so animals rarely manage to escape him.
  16. According to the latest data, there are 5 thousand grizzly bears in Canada and Alaska, and less than 300 in the United States. For comparison: at the beginning of the last century, from eighty to one hundred thousand bears lived in North America.

Video

Average weight of a bear various types ranges from 150 kg to one ton.

This dangerous and graceful predator It’s hard to accuse him of being overweight: in the absence of a model appearance, he is capable of moving at speeds of up to 60 km/h, which is comparable to a horse running at the races! The impressive mass of the bear is also not an obstacle to its acrobatic abilities. The animal easily climbs to a height of up to 30 meters. In order for a person to be at the same height (and this is no less than the ninth floor of a high-rise building) he will need at least professional rock climbing skills and mountaineering equipment. If such data were available, the winner in an athletics competition would obviously not be a human.

Since it is difficult for people to compete with this majestic creature, let’s try to find out which species among bears is the largest, the strongest and endowed with decent intelligence.

How much does a brown bear weigh?

The average weight of a bear of various species ranges from 150 kg to one ton.

The weight of a brown bear depends on the sex of the animal. Females have more modest parameters, their weight ranges from 120 to 150 kg. Representatives of the stronger sex “get better” up to 200-300 kg, although among them there are also males with a more respectable weight of up to 450 kg. For all its heaviness, the brown bear is endowed with unique quality– he knows how to move through brown and dense bushes absolutely silently. This big beast is quite cautious when it is not hungry and calm,

This is interesting!

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He avoids meeting a person in every possible way, unless he has invaded the territory where he gets food. His “accidental” collisions with people are explained by the fact that the brown bear is nearsighted and cannot distinguish a person at a distance of more than fifty meters. To arouse the animal's curiosity, it is enough to simply move; the animal's hearing is very acute.

The brown bear is not a record holder in the heavy weight category. Closer to North Pole lives his taller and larger brother.

How much does a polar bear weigh?

A female polar bear weighs 200-300 kg, and a male can reach 350-450 kg.

How much does this giant weigh and can it compete with its Siberian and Far Eastern relatives? The physical characteristics of the animal are truly impressive. The length of its body is about three meters. If the animal rises to its full height on its hind legs, then even the tallest basketball player will be below its shoulder. The weight of some individuals reaches half a ton. Average weight equals for females: 200-300 kg, for males 350-450 kg.

Although the bear is called white, this is not entirely true. The animal's skin is completely black. This is due to the fact that the color of the skin allows maintaining the necessary thermoregulation of the body, and the color of the coat provides camouflage against the background of polar snows. Animal hair is completely transparent and sunlight easily penetrates the hair and heats the dark skin of the animal.

The polar bear, like its brown counterpart, not only runs well, but also has serious wrestling skills - the paw span of the animal is more than three meters.

The weight of a grizzly bear can exceed 700 kg.

But even such remarkable strength cannot withstand a grizzly bear.

Not only representatives of the animal world avoid meeting with this giant; it also poses a danger to humans - at one time, the beast was known as a cannibal. Its extremely evil disposition, aggressiveness and the presence of sharp, curved claws up to 13 cm long make it a killer machine. This situation arose due to human fault; animals began to be exterminated at the beginning of the twentieth century, as cases of attacks on livestock were observed. Today, the grizzly bear population is negligible and protected.

To find out how much a grizzly bear weighs, you will need to put at least three brown bears on one scale. It may turn out that the advantage will not be in their favor; there is documentary information about when a specimen weighing 726 kg was shot. If such a “guest” decides to pay a visit to a person, he will easily look into the windows of a two-story house if he rises on his hind legs; his height reaches three meters or more. Grizzlies are excellent swimmers, and the myth about slowness and clubfoot gait is based on the fact that when walking, the bear simultaneously steps on two paws located on one side of the body.

People have always been in awe of the greatness and strength of this powerful beast, on coats of arms and heraldic symbols different countries you can see an image of a bear. Interest in studying the habits and lifestyle of an animal is still relevant in our time. Scientists and researchers install sensors and cameras to monitor the number and habitat of individuals. The devices transmit information about how much the bear weighs and the number of babies born. Preserving these graceful and majestic animals is a difficult and important task, and only man can do it.