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Brown Bear (Grizzly Bear)

Ursus arctos

Summary 5

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. Adult bears generally weigh between 100 and 635 kg (220 and 1,400 lb). Its largest subspecies, the Kodiak bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator. They have fur that ranges from dark brown to tan or even golden. The brown bear can be sometimes easily be confused with the black bear because of potentially similar fur colors. However, there are some distinctions to separate the two. As you can see in image four, brown bears have a prominent shoulder hump, while black bears don't. Brown bears also have rounded ears while black bears' are pointed. The front claws are also very different in length and shape. The brown bear cannot be found in Iron County, Utah. This is because there are no longer brown bear populations in the state of Utah. This section will only be helpful to those in the northwestern parts of the United States, Canada, and Alaska.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Marv Elliott, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Marv Elliott
  2. (c) Forest Service Northern Region, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/fsnorthernregion/7205001304/
  3. (c) Walter Siegmund, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scat_8616.JPG
  4. (c) Zachary Eric Mathews, all rights reserved, uploaded by Zachary Eric Mathews
  5. Adapted by Zachary Eric Mathews from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_arctos

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