Grizzly size weight. What is the biggest bear in the world?

A bear is one of the animals that you would hardly want to meet one on one. Its dimensions inspire genuine fear. Surprisingly, at birth some bears weigh less than 200 grams, and this inevitably raises the question of how much an adult bear weighs. It all depends on its type and individual characteristics. The most famous bears are: brown, black, white. Since the brown bear lives in our country, we will dwell on it in more detail.

Distribution area

Previously, the brown bear was found throughout almost all of Europe, including Ireland and England. The southern border of the range was the African Atlas Mountains, and in the east, bears were found even in the territory of modern Japan. It most likely entered North America approximately 40 thousand years ago. Then it settled in territories from Alaska to the northern borders of Mexico. Today, the brown bear is widespread in Finland (in this country it was even declared the national animal) and Scandinavia, and is less common in the center of Europe and the Carpathians. In addition, it also lives in Iranian and Iraqi forests, northern China, Palestine, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. In North America, the brown bear is called the “grizzly” and is more often found in western Canada and Alaska. In Russia, the brown bear lives in almost all forests of the country, except for the southern regions.

Appearance

The animal is strong, with distinct withers on the back. The body cover is thick. The coat color is uniform. As a rule, bears shed their coats in the spring, and their coats are renewed in the fall. The ears are small, the eyes are set deep. The tail is practically invisible under the fur and is only 2 cm long. The paws are quite strong, with curved claws (their length can reach 10 cm).

Weight of a brown bear and its dimensions

The average body length of a brown bear is 1-2 meters. recorded in Kamchatka, the Far East and Alaska. These are real giants: their height in a standing position reaches three meters. In addition to height, many are interested in how much a bear weighs. Body weight depends on the sex and age of the animal. As a rule, the male is larger than the female. The weight of an adult bear (male) is 140-400 kg. But among them there are giant individuals weighing up to 600 kg. The female weighs on average 90-210 kg. A bear with a record body weight was discovered on Kodiak Island. His weight was 1134 kg and his height was about 4 meters. Many people are interested in how much someone living in Russia weighs? In our country there are smaller individuals, their body weight on average is 100 kg. How much does a grizzly bear weigh that lives in America? The grizzly bear is a subspecies of the brown bear; its body weight can reach 500 kg. Individual individuals can weigh 700 kg.

Lifespan

How much does a bear weigh and how long does it live - these are probably the most frequently asked questions. Note that the animal directly depends on its habitat. In the wild it can live 20-35 years. If an animal is kept in a zoo or nature reserve, then it lives twice as long - about 50 years, or even more. Puberty occurs at 6-11 years of age.

Behavior

The brown bear has a developed sense of smell. He can smell meat well even from a great distance. The bear has perfectly developed hearing. He often stands on his hind legs to catch the direction of the flow of smell or listen to a sound that interests him. In the forest he behaves like a real owner: he walks around his property in the early morning or after dusk. In bad weather, it can wander through the forests for hours in search of food.

Lifestyle and nutritional habits

The brown bear is considered a forest animal. In Russia, its favorite places are dense forests with bushes and deciduous trees. Can enter the territory of the tundra and alpine forests. In Europe, it most often lives in the mountains, and in North America, its favorite habitats are alpine meadows, tundra and the coast. The male usually lives alone, and the female with cubs. Each individual occupies a certain territory from 70 to 400 km, while the male requires 7 times more area than the female. Of course, this does not depend on how much the bear weighs. It’s just that a female more often lives with cubs, and it is more difficult for her to travel long distances than for a single male. Bears mark the boundaries of their territory with urine and scratches on trees.

Animals are omnivores. The diet consists of 75% plant foods - these are berries, tubers, grass stems, nuts, roots and acorns. In lean years they can feed on corn and oat fields. The clubfoot's diet may consist of ants, worms, and small rodents (mice, chipmunks, gophers). Although a bear is not a 100% predator, it can kill an elk or a roe deer. There are frequent cases when a grizzly bear attacked wolves, and in the territory Far East bears sometimes hunt tigers. Honey is considered the favorite delicacy of this animal (that’s why it was called that). Fish is a seasonal object of hunting. At the beginning of spawning, when there are still few fish, the bear eats the entire carcass, but when there is a lot of it, it eats only the fat-rich parts (head, milt and caviar). In hungry years, a bear can hunt domestic animals and often visits apiaries, ruining them.

Brown bear activity occurs in the morning and evening hours. Lifestyle is seasonal. When it gets cold, the bear builds up a subcutaneous layer of fat and lies down in a den to hibernate. At the same time, the average weight of a bear increases by 20%. A den is a dry place under windbreaks or uprooted tree rhizomes. On average, winter sleep lasts about 70-190 days and depends on the climate (October-March, November-April). It turns out that the clubfoot hibernates for about six months. Female bears spend the longest time in hibernation, while older males spend the longest hibernation. It is also interesting to know how much a brown bear weighs after winter sleep. During this time they can lose about 80 kg of weight. If a bear has not managed to accumulate a sufficient amount of fat over the summer and autumn, in winter it awakens and begins to wander through the forest in search of food. Such bears are usually called connecting rods. The connecting rods are dangerous and hungry, so they attack everyone, even humans. Most often, they rarely survive until the end of winter: they die from frost, severe hunger, or from a hunter’s bullet.

Despite the fact that the brown bear's weight is impressive and it looks somewhat clumsy, it runs quite fast, swims well and climbs trees well. The paw strike is so powerful that it can break the back of a large bison or bull.

Reproduction

The female bears offspring once every 2-4 years. Estrus occurs at the end of spring - beginning of summer, lasting only 2-4 weeks. During the breeding season, males often fight among themselves, sometimes with fatal results. occurs with several males, the pregnancy is latent, and embryo development will begin only in November. Pregnancy lasts from 6 to 8 months, the birth itself occurs at the place of hibernation - in the den. There are up to 5 cubs in one litter. I wonder how much a bear weighs at birth if it later reaches that size? Cubs weigh 340-680 grams at birth, their length is 25 cm. They are born completely blind and deaf, with almost no hair. Hearing appears only 14 days after birth, and they become sighted after a month. By 3 months they have baby teeth and can eat berries. The mother bear feeds the cubs with milk for up to 30 months. As a rule, the father does not take part in raising the offspring; on the contrary, he may eat the bear cub because he sees it as a potential rival. Cubs begin to live independently without their mother at about 3-4 years of age.

Security

The brown bear is listed in the Red Book. This animal is vulnerable due to the high mortality rate of young animals and slow reproduction. But recently the population has been growing. According to some data, there are about 200 thousand individuals in the world, 120,000 of which live in Russia, 14,000 in Europe, 32,500 in the USA ( most of in Alaska), 21,500 in Canada. Bear hunting in many countries is limited or completely prohibited.

The largest bear on the planet is known as the Kodiak. It is one of the subspecies of brown bears and is under government protection in most countries. In terms of its size, this animal surpasses not only its relatives, but even the “king of beasts”. The average male weighs more than 700 kilograms, and the female weighs about 300 kilograms. At the same time, it should be noted that there were Kodiak individuals whose weight exceeded the one ton mark. When answering the question about which bear is the largest, you need to take into account the nuance that in the summer these animals weigh about a third more than after hibernation. Be that as it may, there is no other land predator with such dimensions.

The animal has a compact and at the same time strong, muscular body with a short tail. His head is large and his legs are long. The largest bear on the planet has dark brown fur, which in some individuals is almost black. Despite the fact that the Kodiak is considered a predator, it feeds on a variety of foods. Most often it becomes fish that come to spawn in local shallow rivers. In addition, the animal often eats nuts, berries and various roots. As for hunting other animals, this happens only in exceptional cases.

According to their lifestyle, these animals are solitary and never form herds. Only during the breeding season, which falls in the summer, do pairs form. A female Kodiak usually gives birth to one to three cubs every four years, usually in winter. They stay with her until she is four years old. The largest brown bear is considered adult when it is six years old. After being weaned from their mother, small males try to move away from her, while females, on the contrary, try to stay as close as possible. She, in turn, always comes to the rescue when danger arises. In this regard, the survival rate for cubs is 56 and 80 percent, respectively.

The predator's habitat is the islands of the Kodiak archipelago on the southern coast of Alaska. The largest bear is the main local attraction and attracts a large number of tourists every year. Currently, there are approximately three thousand individuals of this animal on the planet, so hunting for it is strictly limited by law. The allowed shooting of Kodiaks is a maximum of 160 individuals per year.

In terms of size, Kodiaks are almost equal only to polar bears. They differ from their brown relatives only in their place of residence and fur color. Moreover, this variety tolerates severe frosts better, and the structure of their paws allows them to run faster on ice. The animal lives on the islands of the Arctic. Often the title of “largest bear” is given to him. The predator feeds mainly on ringed fish and fish, which it can detect with its sense of smell at a distance of up to six hundred meters. The animal is an excellent swimmer and can cover a distance of five hundred kilometers in a few days. Currently, there are approximately 27 thousand individuals of this animal left on the planet, and hunting for it is strictly limited.

Reading fairy tales as children, we imagined bears as stupid and clumsy. However, this is not the case. A real bear is a dangerous predator and meeting one can result in disaster. Its weight often reaches 500 kg. Moreover, some species of animal can grow up to 2.5 meters. They are omnivores, since in addition to their live prey, they can feast on honey, berries or plant roots. Scientists will identify 8 varieties of this huge predator. Which one is the biggest bear in the world?

Kodiak

The record holder can rightfully be called the Kodiak bear, which is found in North America. Representatives of this breed, who can be called record holders, live in the Kodiak archipelago. This is where their name comes from. Here the bear has practically no natural enemies, but a huge amount of food. Today, there are about 3 thousand Kodiak individuals in the wild.

Representatives of this breed are strong and muscular with a dark brown coat and fairly long paws. The weight of males reaches 530 kg, and females only 250-315 kg. Over the summer they can gain significant weight and weigh up to 700 kg. Kodiaks grow up to 6 years of age, and after that they only gain weight. On average, the height of this bear is 1.5 meters.

By nature, Kodiaks are hermits and only during the mating season do they look for a mate. Their main food is fish and plants, although they can also feed on carrion. They are mostly peaceful, and cases of attacks on humans have been recorded only twice. In this case, the hunters became the victims and injured the animal. The life expectancy of males is 27 years, and that of females is 34 years.

Grizzly

Translated from Latin, “grizzly” means “terrible bear.” This breed is found from Alaska to Mexico. The indigenous people of these territories considered it a real feat to defeat this giant. With the arrival of white people on the continent, the mass extermination of grizzlies began. Therefore, today they can only be found in nature reserves or national parks.

Grizzlies have huge claws. Sometimes their length reaches 15 cm, which prevents these bears from climbing trees. The coat color is dark brown. It is lighter on the stomach than on the back. The average weight of a male grizzly bear is 350-400 kg. Females are much smaller. Over the summer, a grizzly bear can gain up to 30% of its body weight.

This bear has a stern disposition, so it is better not to meet him in the wild. But, according to scientists, only 10% of them eat meat. The rest prefer plant foods. Those who live on the shore of a reservoir can hunt fish.

Polar bear

Another bear that is found in Arctic latitudes and is one of the largest representatives of its genus is the polar bear. For many years it was the prey of hunters who exterminated them only for their valuable skin. Therefore, today it is listed in the Rossi Red Book and hunting for it is either completely prohibited or there are restrictions on it.

This bear's fur is translucent with hollow fibers inside. This makes it possible to retain heat. After burning out, it becomes yellowish. And when algae settle on the villi, it can turn greenish. This bear's skin is very dark, sometimes even black. A distinctive feature of this breed is its flat head and long neck. They can walk freely on ice thanks to their fur-covered soles. The interdigital membranes help them swim and dive.

Polar bears can reach 500 kg. This is the weight of a male, while females are much smaller. They are ready to mate only at 4 years of age. Then they give birth to babies once every 2-3 years. The average lifespan of these bears is 25 years. But some individuals are able to live up to 40 years.

By nature, they are vagabonds and can walk many kilometers in search of food. Well-developed sense organs help them hunt. Their diet mainly consists of seals, fish and carrion. These born hunters are able to lie for hours, waiting for their prey. And in order not to give themselves away, they cover their nose with their paws.

People have long been interested in these club-footed giants. Legends and beliefs were formed about bears, they were depicted on coats of arms, filmed in films, and made a symbol of various events:

1. On the coats of arms of many states and cities, such as Greenland, Perm, Berlin, etc. bears are depicted.
2. The most famous bear in Hollywood was Bart the Kodiak, who starred in many films between 1977 and 2000.
3. The weight of the bear that lived in the Berlin Zoo was 1200 kg.
4. In the United States, a 25-cent coin was issued that depicted a bear catching a fish.
5. In 2009, Alaska hunters were able to kill a grizzly bear that weighed 730 kg and reached 4 meters in length.
6. A polar bear can stay in icy water for up to 9 days, while swimming hundreds of miles.
7. On February 27, the world celebrates the polar bear holiday.

Every year in the news, and more on the Internet, there are reports of encounters with giant bears in different parts of the world. Most often, people perceive this as just another duck, although many naturalists and hunters are confident that in remote, remote places giant bears exist and thrive well - direct descendants of animals that went extinct thousands of years ago.

Many trophy hunters dream of catching the biggest bear and getting into the record books. On the other hand, this powerful and very intelligent beast, with its size and strength, seems to challenge humans. Suffice it to recall the many years of hunting for a giant seasoned brown bear, so vividly described in William Faulkner’s story “The Bear.” By the way, on our website you can watch a magnificent film based on this book, which did not leave any hunter indifferent. Just go.

Kuvaev suggested looking for the Chukchi shark, which was either a miraculously preserved ancient cave bear, or some independent species, in the vicinity of Lake Elgygytgyn, one of the most inaccessible places in the region. So far, not a single bear resembling a shark has been found there. And no bear tracks of abnormal size were observed.

Giant with short legs

A new surge of interest in giant bears occurred after the publication in the press of materials about Kamchatka hunter Rodion Sivolobov, who claimed that in certain parts of the island there was an unusual bear, which the Koryaks called “irkuyem.” This animal is not only gigantic in size, but also differs in physique from other bears. According to Sivolobov, he first learned about the existence of the mysterious Irkuyem from the old Koryak I. Elelkiv, a resident of the village of Khvilino. He warned Sivolobov against hunting a huge bear with short hind legs - irkuyem.

Arctopus was very large

There is an opinion that in the mid-70s a huge specimen was shot, and its paws, almost half a meter long, and its skull were sent to the capital. But they didn’t make it there - they mysteriously disappeared from the train somewhere in the Urals region.

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Speaking about an animal like a bear, it can be called calm, funny and friendly at the same time, and at the same time very dangerous, bloodthirsty and strong. It is probably difficult to find another animal in nature in which these opposite qualities that people attribute to it would equally coexist. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the bear equally loves to feast on sweet honey, aromatic berries and freshly caught forest inhabitants, and it has also happened that representatives of this species of mammals have attacked people.

The biggest bear

Speaking about types, we can say that biggest bear in the world today it is a subspecies of brown bears called kodiak(lat. Ursus arctos middendorffi). His place of residence is the archipelago of the same name near the southern coast of Alaska.

On land, the Kodiak is considered one of the largest predators, but at the same time today it is an endangered species. These animals are close relatives of the grizzly bear; they moved from Alaska itself to these islands about twelve thousand years ago. After global warming set in and caused sea levels to rise, the Kodiaks became isolated from the mainland and are now found only in the Kodiak Archipelago. This species lives only here. After the bears were taken under the protection of the National Wildlife Refuge, their population began to grow: today there are about three thousand individuals.

the Kodiak reaches three meters in length and weighs almost half a ton; sometimes among adult males there are representatives weighing more than one ton. These bears are distinguished by having strong limbs, a large head and a muscular body. They prefer to live alone and are omnivores, although they are classified as predators. In addition to fish, the Kodiak diet includes nuts, grass, berries, and roots. These animals rarely hunt animals, preferring fish.

Kodiak's competition is grizzly, which also reaches three meters in height, but is slightly inferior to it in weight - up to 700 kilograms. A giant man-eating grizzly bear was shot and killed in Alaska in 2009 by a Forest Service employee. Based on the contents of the huge beast’s stomach, it was revealed that it had eaten at least two people over the past 24 hours. The giant's height was 4.3 meters: a common person would only reach the bottom of his stomach.

Today, grizzlies are considered not only one of the largest bears, after Kodiaks, but also the most dangerous. This confirms the above case, as well as their name - ursus horribilis, which translated means “terrible bear.” On average, adult grizzlies weigh about half a ton, and if such an animal stands on its hind legs, it will be three meters tall, which, of course, is not the limit. For a long time, grizzlies have been the masters of mountains and forests on the American continent. These terrible predators knew no rivals, except, of course, each other. This gives today the right for such creatures to be very self-confident and often attack not only cattle, but also people. In other words, meeting such a colossus in the forest is a guaranteed attack by the beast.

Defeating a grizzly bear has always been considered a real feat among any Indian tribe, and this was done by at least six or eight adult warriors armed with spears, arrows and stone axes - firearms It wasn't there then. Today, even after several non-lethal shots, the grizzly will continue to attack - in this case, only a well-aimed shot to the head can save you, as happened with the mentioned cannibal beast. Thus, even a hundred or two hundred years after the exploration of America by Europeans, it was sometimes not always clear who was hunting whom and who was attacking whom - a bear attacking a person or vice versa.

A terrible story is known that happened in 1823 near Fort Kiowa, in the upper reaches of the Missouri River. There was a small hunting expedition led by Captain Smith - right in the middle of an open clearing, he was suddenly attacked by an angry grizzly bear. First, the beast attacked the horse, lifted it up, and then grabbed the rider’s head. The bear chewed the handle of the knife with which Smith tried to somehow defend himself into splinters, and then inflicted wounds on the man, practically scalping him and tearing off one of his ears with his incredible fangs. The animal was killed by a friendly volley of soldiers who arrived in time, but everyone was at a loss - what to do with the captain, because... No one had any medicine or special medical skills. The victim himself was conscious: he asked to sew the skin back to the head with a needle and thread, including the half-torn ear. And so it was done; A few hours later, after resting, the captain was able to ride his horse again. Smith was lucky - the grizzly did not inflict mortal wounds on him, which helped him recover quickly.

Time passed, weapons became more advanced: screw rifling appeared in the barrels of guns, and the bullets became conical rather than round; breech-loading models appeared that made it possible to shoot several times in a row - all this allowed a person to behave much more boldly with the rulers of the American continent. It was really hard for bears at a time when farmers came to the North American prairies and began to actively cultivate the land here, raising cattle at the same time. In order to protect him, bears began to be intensively shot - despite the fact that the latter attacked cows and sheep quite rarely. There was a considerable premium on the head of each grizzly bear killed: this encouraged hunters to organize real round-ups with packs of dogs; poisoned baits were also deliberately left in the forests.

As a result, the grizzlies were forced to retreat further into the forests of Canada, mountain valleys, British Columbia and the Yukon. There was a time when there were only a few of these animals left, and even they tried to behave as quietly and unnoticed as possible. In the first ten years of the 20th century, there was not a single case of a grizzly bear attacking a person. At the same time, biologists and other scientists began to study these places, after which it became clear Interesting Facts. In fact, grizzly bears, like all bears, are almost vegetarians - they eat 90 percent of plant foods and small game. Only ten percent are carnivores, specializing in large game. Meat-eating grizzlies are the largest among their relatives.

One such hunter, most famous from 1869 to 1904, is a bear named Old Moses. For thirty-five years, no one could destroy him - he terrorized the vast territory of Colorado. Here, during all this time, he killed about eight hundred head of cattle - calves and other small animals do not count. Moses killed five people who unsuccessfully tried to kill him. However, even this beast did not attack first unless it was disturbed by shots. According to eyewitnesses, this miracle bear even had a certain sense of humor - he arranged real fun for gold miners and just travelers. The animal quietly crept up to the camp where the fire was burning and ran out with a roar for everyone to see, throwing everything in its path in different directions. The people, numb with fear, did not even try to shoot at him, and Moses did not touch anyone. Having seen enough of the “funny” picture, when frightened people screamed in fear and rushed to the trees to escape, the animal retreated into the forest thicket.

Today, grizzly bears live in such American national parks as Yellowstone, Mount McKinley and Glacier. These animals have been carefully protected here for several decades, which has led to cases of them attacking people again. However, even now it’s all the fault of the people themselves, namely tourists. You cannot hunt here, and tourists, in turn, try to feed the animals. Bears quickly get used to this, lose their fear and appear near tourist tents and camps. If there is not enough food, these ferocious predators attack the people themselves. Everything is explained by the fact that the bear’s character is quite complex and unpredictable - it is because of this that some individuals get along well in zoos and circuses, setting an example of good nature and affection, while others are terrible cannibals.

One of the largest predators on the planet today is also polar bear, or Ursus maritimus. These animals live in the circumpolar region, which is limited to the northern coasts of the continents. The body of a polar bear is somewhat different from a brown bear - it is more elongated, the neck is long, the legs are short, thick and strong, the feet are wider and longer, and there are special swimming membranes between the toes. The head of a polar bear is narrower and elongated, pointed in front, the mouth is much smaller, and the tail is short, blunt and thick. The main difference here, of course, is the color of the coat - white, sometimes silver or even yellowish. This color helps former bears to camouflage perfectly while guarding prey.

The height of such an animal reaches 1.6 meters, and the length is 2.8 meters, the weight is usually about half a ton, rarely - one ton. Polar bears have large fangs up to five centimeters long. These animals are excellent swimmers because... They often have to hunt specifically for marine life - fish, seals, sea lions, etc. Like brown bears, white relatives do not have any enemies, unless, of course, you count humans. Polar bears are 100% predators, this helps them survive in difficult conditions of severe frosts and eternal winter.