On the southern coast of Alaska there is a large island called Kodiak, the second largest island in the US (after Hawaii). This island is home to the largest brown bears in the world, The Kodiak Bear.
These bears weigh 1,500 pounds on average. To compare, normal inland Alaskan grizzly bears weigh between 300 lbs for females to 800 lbs for males.
The Kodiak Bear is not the only large brown bear. The Kamchatka brown bear is the second largest brown bear and lives in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.
You may be wondering why these bears get so big.
The largest bears get big from “coastal calories”. They have access to fish, especially during the salmon runs and therefore they are able to get more energy in their diet, compared to inland bears.
Bears on Kodiak Island are also able to get huge because they have almost no competition from other animals. They have lived and developed in isolation from other bears for around 12,000 years and have adapted to be very big.
Kodiak Island is home to around 3,500 bears, on only 3,588 square miles, meaning almost every mile on the island has a bear on it. This is the highest density of brown bears in the world.
The largest bear ever was a Kodiak Bear weighing in at around 2,500 pounds and reaching 11 feet tall when standing.
Inland bears are grizzly bears that have no access to coastal areas or fish during the salmon runs, for example, the bears in Yellowstone National park.
Captive bears usually weigh more than wild bears. Boo, a captive inland grizzly bear at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, Canada, can weigh up to 870 lbs leading up to hibernation time.
My Mom and I were able to visit Boo at the resort on a recent trip to Canada. Here´s some of the pictures we took of him.
