How much do polar and brown bears weigh? A giant man-eating bear, the largest grizzly bear ever killed in the world, has been killed in the USA. The rarest bear in the world.

Today, the largest bear in the world is the Kodiak. Moreover, it is also the largest predator living on land. The Kodiak lives on the islands of the archipelago of the same name, located off the southern coast of Alaska. The weight of these brown giants often reaches a ton, and the height at the withers is 1.6 meters. This one does not feed on big game at all, as one might think. The basis of its diet is berries, herbs, roots, carrion and fish. Despite its impressive size, the Kodiak is endangered. Today its population numbers about three thousand individuals. The reason for this reduction in numbers was a person who uncontrollably exterminated these beautiful ones. Since 1941, Kodiak has been under state protection. Only 160 individuals are allowed to be shot per year.

Grizzly

Bears living in Alaska and Canada are, as a rule, somewhat smaller than Kodiaks, however, there are real giants among them. From Latin, the name of this species is “terrible bear”, and some individuals fully justify this. The basis of the grizzly bear's diet is plant foods, but about 10% prefer a meat diet. Living nearby in the village, they can hunt cattle and sometimes people. This bear is not human and fiercely enters into battle, from which it is not so easy for people to come out alive. However, with the invention of weapons, man began to gain the upper hand over the terrible enemy. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the grizzly bear population declined so much that they had to be protected. Today these bears, whose length was 4.3 meters. The remains of two people were found in the stomach of a huge animal, which was recognized as the largest grizzly bear in the world, which it had eaten in the last 72 hours.

Polar bear

The polar bear is another impressively sized predator, which can reach three meters in length and weigh tons. The polar bear eats exclusively meat, which is necessary for its survival in the polar regions of the northern hemisphere of the earth. Fortunately, its diet mainly consists of marine animals such as seals and walruses, as well as fish, and it rarely attacks humans.

A mobile zoo recently came to our city. Of course, we decided to go and look at the animals, although I am not a supporter of keeping animals in cages. Wild animals should live in the wild. Passing by a cage with a bear, my daughter shouted: “Look how huge he is. This is the largest bear in the world.” I just smiled back, because I know which bear is the best.

Among the largest bears, three species can be distinguished: grizzly bear, polar bear and Kodiak bear. A white polar bear was included in the Guinness Book of Records; its length was 3.5 meters and it weighed 1002 kilograms.

Some facts:

• A polar bear weighs from 200 to 450 kilograms, sometimes reaching up to a ton.
• The height at the withers reaches 130 - 150 centimeters.
• The body length of this predator reaches three meters.

The polar bear, the largest among mammals, has completely transitioned to life in the vast icy expanses of the northern hemisphere. Thick and dense white wool, a layer of fat up to 10 centimeters help him survive in the cold and not freeze in icy water. Hunting is the only way for the northern bear to feed itself. He is the only bear that eats only meat and fish. The polar bear is a very dangerous, cunning and unpredictable predator. It can sneak up on prey for several hours, dive under ice floes, and then overtake it with a sharp throw.

Some interesting facts:

• The polar bear's skin is black and its tongue is blue.
• Despite their weight, bears can run at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour.
• It can swim about 160 kilometers without stopping.
• They can smell prey at a distance of up to 30 kilometers.
• Polar bears, unlike others, do not hibernate.

If you want to learn more about the largest bear on earth, I advise you to watch the film “Polar Story”, and we will watch the good old story “The King is the Polar Bear”, and I will show my daughter the largest bear.

A US Forest Service employee shot and killed a giant man-eating bear in Alaska. The young man was hunting deer when a huge grizzly bear appeared fifty meters away and rushed at him. Having managed to raise his 7mm semi-automatic rifle, the hunter emptied his entire magazine into the attacking bear. The grizzly fell a few steps away from the man, but was still alive.

After reloading the rifle, the guy shot the bear in the head several times, and only this stopped his heart. An Alaska Department of Wildlife and Fisheries commission later determined that it was the largest grizzly bear ever taken in the world.

His weight was more than 726 kg, and his height, if he stood on his hind legs, was about 4.3 meters. Having examined the contents of the grizzly bear's stomach, scientists found fragments of human bodies in it. The commission found that the grizzly bear has killed at least two people in the last 72 hours alone.

An investigation was immediately organized. Forest Service personnel followed the grizzly bear's trail and soon discovered a .38-caliber pistol with an empty clip. Not far from the gun, the remains of a tourist were found, who became the giant bear's last meal. In defense, the man managed to shoot six times, and he hit the grizzly four times before this monstrous animal killed him. The encounter occurred about two days before the grizzly bear was shot and killed by a Forest Service employee. The body of the second victim was never found. In total, Forest Service personnel found four .38 caliber bullets and 12 bullets from a 7 mm semi-automatic rifle in the bear's body.

In order to more clearly imagine the size of this monster, we can make the following comparison: if you are a person of average height, you would only reach his lower abdomen when the bear stood on its hind legs. His height was such that he could look through the roof of a one-story house or look into the windows of the second floor. And when the bear stood on four legs, then his eyes and yours would be at the same level.

Various types of bears can be found not only in the forests of Russia, but in other parts of the world. Most species lead a sedentary lifestyle. Meeting him one on one in the forest poses a huge threat to a person’s life, but there are also quite peaceful specimens. Bears are the largest predators in the world, and we will learn which are the largest bears in the world from this article.

Before you is a Kodiak - a subspecies of brown bears, which are considered the largest predators on the planet.

Dimensions and weight

Kodiaks are huge - their body length reaches 4 m, and their height at the withers is up to 1.5 m. The weight is also amazing - the average weight of males is about 450 kg, and females - 250 kg. However, occasionally there are specimens that weigh more than a ton! They live on Kodiak Island, as well as on other islands of the Kodiak archipelago off the southern coast of Alaska. Their true habitat is where there is a short winter and plenty of different food. It cannot be said that outwardly this species is somehow different from other bears, because it is not. Except for the size, of course.

Where do they live and what do they eat?

They live alone and hibernate during the cold months. They feed not only on other animals, but also on berries, roots, herbs and even carrion. They do not disdain fish, especially during salmon spawning. Mating of a male with a female usually occurs in the summer, but the fertilized cell develops only in the fall. Cubs appear during hibernation in January or February - from one to three. Young individuals remain with their mother until the age of three.

Unfortunately, Kodiaks are on the verge of extinction - today their number is no more than 3,000 individuals. However, it is allowed to shoot 160 specimens of these huge animals per year.

In second place in terms of size is the grizzly bear. It belongs to the brown bear subspecies and lives mainly in Canada and Alaska, although some time ago it could be found even in Mexico. One of the main differences between grizzlies and other bears is the presence of huge claws, the length of which can reach 15 cm. This is why, by the way, the animal cannot climb trees.

If we talk about the external features of a grizzly bear, then in its entire appearance it very much resembles the most ordinary brown bear, however, it is noticeably larger than the latter, heavier and stronger. The length of some individuals reaches 4 meters, and their weight is just under a ton! The color of the coat is dark brown, some parts of the body are covered with fur of a grayish tint, which from a distance makes the animal slightly grayish. By the way, grizzly is translated into Russian as “gray”.

What do they eat?

This type of bear usually feeds on plant foods, however, mainly at an early age, since only then can a grizzly bear easily climb trees and ruin hives in search of honey - huge claws grow much later. Having matured, he often feeds on animal food, including fish, which he can catch excellently.

Where do they live?

Today, grizzlies live mainly in national parks in the United States. Despite the fact that the bear is under control, the American government allows seasonal shooting of bears, since their population is very significant.

For humans, this animal is very dangerous, since with one blow of its paw it is capable of inflicting a fatal blow. Fortunately, such incidents have practically never happened in recent years.

Interestingly, grizzlies can interbreed with polar bears, resulting in unusual hybrids - polar grizzlies.

We will also tell you about one interesting incident that happened to a forest service employee in Alaska. He was hunting deer when he noticed a huge grizzly bear not far from him. The latter saw the hunter and rushed towards him. But the guy was not taken aback and immediately began shooting at the animal with his semi-automatic rifle. As a result, the bear fell literally a few centimeters from the forester.

When scientists arrived to examine the animal, they were amazed at its size - its weight was 726 kilograms and its length was just under 4 meters! Moreover, after they examined the contents of the bear's stomach, they found remains of human bodies in it. It was a man-eating grizzly bear, and in the last few days alone it had killed at least two people, the remains of one of which were later discovered in the same forest.

Third place is the polar bear, which is often called white, northern or sea, as well as oshkuy.

Dimensions and weight

This species originates from the brown bear. Scientists suggest that it appeared on Earth about 100 thousand years ago. The length of some specimens can reach 3 m and weight up to 800 kilograms. To be fair, it should be noted that such individuals are extremely rare in nature. Most often, researchers come across much smaller representatives of this species: the average body length of a male is about 2-2.5 m, and its weight is up to half a ton. Females are about one and a half times smaller.

Despite all the similarities with its ancestor, the oshkuy has a flat head with small ears on an elongated neck. The color of its coat can be either bright white or yellow - it is often faded by the sun. It is worth knowing that during ultraviolet photography, the animal’s fur coat appears dark - this is possible due to the special structure of the hairs. But the bear’s skin is completely black, although it is very difficult to notice.

Where does it live?

You can meet the beast in the northern hemisphere. Its main food is sea animals, among which we can recall seals, walruses, bearded seals, and so on. Oshkuy catches them most often from behind cover, stunning them with a powerful blow to the head. However, it can hunt in other ways. Let's say one thing - finding prey at -60°C is very difficult, but the polar bear copes with this task brilliantly. True, not always.

In our country, this species of bear is listed in the Red Book, since it reproduces slowly, and young animals often die due to other predators. There are no more than seven thousand individuals on the territory of our country; about 200 animals are shot by poachers every year.

Polar bears are excellent swimmers. Scientists recorded a case where a female swam about 700 km in icy water. This record was officially registered as there was evidence - a GPS tracker was attached to the animal's fur.

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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 over the past 24 hours it had eaten at least two people. The giant's height was 4.3 meters: an ordinary 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 among any Indian tribe was always considered a real feat, and this was done by at least six or eight adult warriors armed with spears, arrows and stone axes - there were no firearms 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 Europeans conquered America, 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 interesting facts emerged. 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.