Ursus arctos

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Once native to Asia, the Atlas Mountains in Africa, Europe and North America [1], brown bears are now extinct in some areas and have had their numbers greatly reduced in others. They prefer semi-open country, usually in mountainous areas.

In North America, the Brown Bear ranges from Alaska east through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, south through British Columbia and through the western half of Alberta. Isolated populations exist in northwestern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, and northwestern Wyoming. Ursus arctos has existed in North America since at least the most recent Ice Age, though it is thought that the Brown Bear was not the dominant carnivore at the time. That role belonged to the far larger, taller, and stronger Giant Short-Faced Bear, also known as the Bulldog Bear, which was almost certainly dominant when the two animals met. The Giant Short-Faced Bear was adapted for fast running and meat from rather large animals was the main part of its diet; in contrast, the Grizzly or Brown Bear has teeth adapted to an omnivorous diet. The Giant Short-Faced Bear, on average, weighed twice as much as the Grizzly, despite some exceptional Grizzly Bears in the later Old West that were recorded to have grown to around 800 kilograms.

Ursus arctos also shared the land with the American lion and Smilodon, both apparently also dependent on large animals for food. But the Grizzly could eat plant food, insects, carrion, small animals of all kinds, and large mammals if needed, in contrast to the far more restricted food menu available to the giant cats and the Giant Short-Faced Bear. This made the other big carnivores very vulnerable to starvation if the supply of available large mammals gave out, which eventually happened, possibly due to hunting by humans.

For whatever reason the Ice Age herbivorous megafauna became extinct; the Sabertooth, American Lion, and Giant Short-Faced Bear could no longer find enough suitable food, and faded into extinction, leaving the Brown Bear alone as top North American predator, with the Gray and Dire wolves, the jaguar in the south, the American black bear, and puma also competing for large prey. It is not known precisely how long humans have lived in America, but the biggest human emigration there was about the time of the last Ice Age period, when the Paleo-Indians showed up. These people brought with them the Clovis point and advanced hunting techniques. If these people were responsible for wiping out the Ice Age herbivore megafauna, it can be argued that Ursus arctos benefited in numbers and range by the extinction of the competing predators.

In Europe, the Brown Bear outlasted the larger and closely related Cave Bear but the reasons why the Cave Bear became extinct are not clear. The Cave Bear was hunted by the Neanderthals who may have had a religion relating to this bear, the so-called Cave Bear Cult, but Neanderthal populations were not large enough to cause extinction. The Cave Bear also outlasted the Neanderthals by about 18,000 years, going extinct about 10,000 years ago. It thus held its own in Europe against modern humans for 180 centuries. Its diet was similar to the Brown Bear, which probably lived in the same area at concurrent times, so why it died out is a mystery.

The population of brown bears in the Pyrenees mountain range between France and Spain is so low (estimated at fourteen to eighteen, with a shortage of females), that releases of mostly female bears from Slovenia are in progress in the spring of 2006 to alleviate the imbalance, despite protests from French farmers.

There are estimated to be about 200,000 Brown Bears in the world. The largest populations are in Russia, with 120,000, United States, with 32,500, and Canada with 21,750. Ninety-five percent of the population in the United States is in Alaska, though in the West the bears seem to be repopulating slowly but steadily along the Rockies and plains. In Europe, there are 14,000 brown bears in ten separate fragmented populations, from Spain to Russia and north into Scandinavia. They are extinct in the British Isles, extremely threatened or extinct in France and in trouble over most of Central Europe. The Brown Bear is Finland's national animal. The Carpathian Brown Bear population is the largest one in Europe outside Russia, estimated at 4,500 to 5,000 bears.

In Arctic areas, the potential habitat of the Brown Bear has actually been increasing. The warming of that region has allowed the species to move farther and farther north into what was once exclusively the domain of the Polar Bear. Although in non-Arctic areas, habitat loss is blamed as the leading cause of endangerment, followed by hunting.

Brown bears prefer semi - open country, usually in moutainous areas.

The Brown Bear is primarily nocturnal and, in the summer, puts on up to 180 kg (400 pounds) of fat, on which it relies to make it through winter, when it becomes very lethargic. Although they are not true hibernators and can be woken easily, they like to den in a protected spot such as a cave, crevice, or hollow log during the winter months.

They are omnivores and feed on a variety of plant parts, including berries, roots, and sprouts; fungi; and fish, insects, and small mammals, especially ground squirrels. Contrary to popular mythology, Brown Bears are not particularly carnivorous; they derive up to 90% of their dietary food energy from vegetable matter. Their jaws structure has been adapted to this diet habit, it is longer and lacks strong, sharp canine teeths of true predators. Interestingly, bears eat an enormous number of moths during the summer (sometimes as many as 20,000 to 40,000 in a day) and may derive up to a third of their food energy from these insects. Locally, in areas of Russia and Alaska, Brown Bears feed mostly on spawning salmon, and the nutrition and abundance of this food accounts for the enormous size of the bears from these areas. Brown Bears also occasionally prey on deer (Odocoeilus spp.; Dama spp., Capreolus spp.), Red Deer (Cervus elaphus or American elk), moose (Alces alces) and American Bison (Bison bison). When brown bear attacks these animals, it tends to carefully chooses young calves or aged, sick adults as they are slow and weak, thus will not be able to outrun the bear or put up resistance, which could prove fatal to the hunter. Brown Bears have been known to retrace their own tracks and walk only on rocks while being hunted, apparently to avoid being traced. Brown Bears have also been found stealing the kills of tigers, wolves, and pumas; although these other predators may cause the bear to retreat if enough aggressive assertion is displayed.

Like all bears, the brown bear is plantigrade, which means that it walks with its entire foot like a human, rather than in its toes like cats and dogs, which are digitigrade. They can also stand up in their hind legs for extended periods of time, which makes them look rather human. Bears also tend to sit down on their rear with their upper body off the ground, like a person, too. They have a very short, stubby tail, just like all bears.

Normally a solitary animal, the Brown Bear congregates alongside streams and rivers during the salmon spawn in the fall. Every other year females produce one to four young, which weigh only about 1 to 2 kg (2 to 5 lb) at birth. Raised entirely by their mother, the cubs are taught to climb trees at the sign of danger.