Brown Bear

Ursus arctos

Description: The brown bear is somewhat variable in appearance, and may be chocolate brown, tan, rust, blonde, grey, charcoal, and any mixture thereof. Some even have white patches, or appear to be blue, though they are actually varied shades of grey. The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) is so named for the frosted appearance of the fur around its shoulders. Brown bears range in size from 175 pounds to over 1,200; a large male may stand over ten feet tall on his hind legs, or five feet at the shoulder with all four paws on the ground. The largest individuals are those found on the Pacific coasts of North American and Asia, where they are able to feast on the fatty tissue of migrating salmon. Inland-dwelling bears tend to be smaller.

Brown bears are impossibly strong, capable of killing massive prey with a single swipe of the paw. They can outrun a horse, and swim for hours; they are armed with claws that may exceed four inches in length, and large incisors set in powerful jaws wide enough to engulf a grown man's head.

Habitat: The brown bear's habitat is varied, including woodlands, grasslands, arctic tundra, and seashores, where they search for carrion and dig for clams. Near the coast, many bears may collect in rivers to capture salmon as they make their spawning runs. Before they were extirpated from most of the United States and Mexico, brown bears could also be found in North America's deserts, but it is quite unlikely that any inhabit these areas today.

Distribution: The most widespread of the bears, brown bears were once found on four continents, from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer. They are now restricted to the northernmost portions of Europe, Asia, and North America, with a few, isolated populations in Western Europe, the Middle East, the Tibetan Plateau, and the US states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. There may be a few bears left in the Atlas Mountains of Africa, but it is unlikely. An estimated 200,000 brown bears remain in the wild, with more than half of them residing in Russia.

Behavior: Brown bears tend to be solitary animals, and are most active after dark. Thanks to their massive size, they occupy the top of the food chain, and have been known to steal the kills of the world's largest cat, the Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), possibly even tracking tigers specifically for that purpose. They are not strictly meat-eaters, however; the majority of the brown bear's diet is plant matter, including fruits, tubers, and grasses. They also eat insects and larvae, some specializing in eating moths, which may make up a high percentage of their summer nutritional intake. Along the coast, bears scavenge for dead marine life carried in by the tide, and they may also dig for clams. In areas where salmon swim upstream to spawn, brown bears congregate at the best fishing spots. The skin and roe (eggs) of the salmon are often the only portion the bears eat, as they contain the most fat to carry them through the winter. These fishing sessions can be dangerous, especially for younger bears, which are sometimes killed in territorial disputes.

Brown bears do not undergo a true hibernation in the winter; their metabolisms slow, they do not eat, and they spend the majority of their time in their dens, but they may be restless and move from one den site to the next. In warmer areas, or where winter food is abundant, they skip this winter rest period entirely.

Mating occurs from late spring to mid-summer, but fertilized eggs are not implanted in the uterus until some five months later. The gestation period thereafter is a short one, lasting only six to eight weeks, after which as many as four cubs are born. The young are born blind and hairless, weighing about one pound, but they grow quickly and may weigh fifty after six months. Brown bear cubs usually stay with their mother for two or three years, and while they eat a variety of foods, they may not stop nursing as long as they are under her care. A female with cubs will not mate again until her offspring set out on their own. While they are considered physically mature at three to four years of age, the cubs continue growing until they are about ten years old.

Reputed to be aggressive and famous for their attacks on human beings, brown bears are generally placid until they feel threatened. An animal with the size and strength of a brown bear may choose to fight, rather than run. Mother bears with cubs are the most common bears involved in attacks on people, but territorial males are also likely to injure or kill people in what they may perceive as self-defense. In some cases, a bear may simply see a human being as an easy meal, and do what comes naturally. In spite of all this, most encounters between bears and people end without incident, each going in the opposite direction. Problems occur when people surprise bears, or when they deliberately pursue them for a photograph or a clear shot with a rifle.

Human Impact: Habitat loss is the primary threat to wild bear populations, but because of their size and human perceptions of them, brown bears have also been hunted relentlessly throughout their range as threats to people and livestock, or as trophies. The California brown bear (U. a. californicus) still adorns the state flag, but the last one was killed in the 1920s. With animals as large and potentially dangerous as bears, it can be difficult to persuade the general public to protect the species, but little by little, conservationists have gained ground in the borwn bear's defense in North America, resulting in reasonably stable populations in the fraction of the bear's historic range that it still occupies.

As it has become increasingly difficult to kill a brown bear legally in North America, wealthy hunters have turned to Russian populations, which receive little government protection. Fair chase laws that prohibit aerial shooting or running down animals by snowmobile are non-existent in Siberia, and bear populations are in decline there. Because young bears remain with their mothers for years after they are born, a hunter that kills a female bear may be condemning her offspring to death from starvation or from a territorial male bear, free to eliminate his competition for food with the cubs' mother no longer there to protect them.

Over-fishing for salmon has also impacted bear population, as has the market for bear parts used in traditional eastern medicine. Bile from the gall bladders of all bear species is highly prized in China, Japan, and Vietnam, and brown bears are frequently killed for these valuable organs, thought to increase virility and cure a host of ills.

The brown bear is famous for its role as a performer; Eastern Europeans gypsies have trained bears to dance and perform tricks for human amusement for centuries. The bears are fed an insufficient diet to limit their growth, and they may spend eighteen hours a day on their hind legs, a position that wild bears only use for short periods to survey their surroundings or to give themselves the appearance of being larger. Dancing bears are fitted with a ring through their noses, which their trainers use to control them. These rings are inserted without anesthetic or sanitary instruments, and often become infected. Rings often tear through, and must be reinserted in another part of the bear's nose or in its lip; older bears may have undergone this process twenty times or more. At the end of a long day of performing, the bears are often tied to trees or boulders, on leads so short they are unable to stand or turn around. The practice is illegal throughout Europe, but due to lack of enforcement in poor communities, nonprofit groups have struggled to eliminate it completely.

From the gypsy tradition emerged the bear trainers of modern circuses. Circus bears may perform such feats as riding motorcycles or horses, as well as the standard dancing on their hind legs. Circus bears spend the vast majority of their time in tiny cages, often surrounded by their own waste, with little if any protection from the elements. The cruelty pervasive in every circus that uses animal performers has led them to be banned in many areas; England has banned the use of bears in traveling circus acts, and some US cities and counties have done the same.

Brown bears are less common in the wild pet trade than black bears (Ursus americanus), but they are still well-represented in animal sanctuaries throughout the United States. It may be their size that has limited their availability to the average buyer, where the black bear has become cheap and easy to obtain, but they are still common enough to turn up at exotic animal auctions and meat packing facilities. Zoos, circuses, and other animal facilities frequently sell young brown bears when they have bred more than they can care for, and sometimes wild bears find their way into captivity; the National Park Service has been known to give problem bears over to laboratories for experimentation, rather than placing them in wildlife sanctuaries, or simply euthanizing them.

Bear conservation and welfare groups are hard at work throughout the world to protect these animals from habitat loss, hunting, and captive abuse, but the problem is widespread and rooted in centuries of tradition. If these groups are to be successful, public education is imperative in addition to their legislative efforts.