Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.
Wildlife
The Grizzly Bear
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Copyright © 1997 - 2010
The Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) is one of several subspecies of Brown Bears. Their color is extremely variable - cream, cinnamon, brown to almost black; the fur bleaches in suncolor ranges from light brown (almost blonde) to black. Their name is derived from the grizzled (streaked with silver) color that tips their fur as they get older. They have a large, sturdy, stocky build and a noticeable hump behind the head. Their claws are long and curved, are yellow to brown in color, and are non-retractile. They use the claws for digging tubers, burrowing rodents and stripping branches. On occasion, they stand up on their hind legs. While this is often seen as a threatening gesture, it is used so the Grizzlies can get a better idea of their surroundings. They hibernate during the winter months and live off of the body fat stored up during the summer months. During hibernation, the heartbeat drops from between 40 to 70 beats per minute to only 10 to 12 beats per minute.
Grizzly Bears are technically omnivorous. They eat succulent vegetation, tubers, berries, insect grubs, small rodents, salmon, trout, carrion, young hoofed mammals (such as deer), and livestock if opportunity arises. They are excellent at fishing. An adult eats 26-35 pounds of food daily. Most of their diet (60 - 90 percent based on location) is made up of grasses, tubers, roots, berries, and insects.
They are found in river valleys, mountain forests, and open meadows all over the world, ranging in North America (especially Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park), Western and Central Europe, some parts of Japan, and Russia. They can be found as far north as the tundra region.
The adult Grizzly Bears are at the top of their food chain and has little to fear from other animals. Mountain lions, other bears, and wolves prey upon cubs. However, the primary threat to the grizzly bear is by hunting or the removal of nuisance bears, or indirectly through habitat loss and fragmentation.
Grizzly Bears are primarily solitary. They will congregate as breeding pairs for awhile, a mother and her cubs for the first 2 to 3 years of their lives, and occasionally in sibling groups after they leave the mother. Grizzly bears have a home range that is anywhere from 50 to 500 miles depending on the gender of the bear. These ranges are not territories since there is no attempt to chase the other bears out.
Grizzly Bears have very few offspring over the course of a life time. Female bears do not have their first cubs until they are about 7 years old. They then have a litter of less than 2 cubs every 4 years. These biological traits make Grizzly Bears very sensitive to population decline.
Grizzly bear cubs are born near the end of the hibernation period and weigh about a pound. They gain weight quickly and will often weigh around 20 pounds when they leave the den. They are dependent on the mother's milk for the first year and will stay with her until they are 3 or 4 years old. In the wild their life span is 25-30 years. The longest documented captivity life span was 47 years.
Like most bears, Grizzlies have poor eyesight. Their senses of hearing and smell are excellent.
The Grizzly Bear is the most powerful symbol of the American wilderness. These great bears once numbered more than 50,000, and roamed the prairies, forests, shorelines, and foothills from the Great Plains to the California coast and south to Mexico. Now there are fewer than 1,100 grizzlies remaining in less than 2% of their original habitat.
Historically, the distribution of Grizzlies included the western half of North America. Today, they have disappeared from more than half their former range. In Canada, Grizzly Bears are still found in parts of the mountain ranges from the coast of British Columbia to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, in the boreal forest of the Swan Hills in Alberta, in the Yukon Territory, and in the mountains west of the Mackenzie River.
Human-caused mortality is the major cause of past and present Grizzly Bear population decline. Bear deaths may be caused directly by hunting or the removal of nuisance bears, or indirectly through habitat loss and fragmentation. Increased human access to Grizzly Bear habitat increases the odds of bear-people encounters which often lead to Grizzly Bear deaths.
Today, the Grizzly Bear is classified as a threatened species in the contiguous United States, a vulnerable species in Canada, and a blue-listed, "at risk" species in the Province of Alberta.
Resources:
The Natural History of North America, Edward Ricciuti
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