Size and Color
Brown bears are some of the world's largest predatory animals. On their hind legs they stand between 5 feet and 9 feet tall. Male brown bears weigh between 300 and 860 pounds while females weigh between 205 and 455 pounds. New born cubs weigh 11 to 22 ounces.
The largest brown bears species are found in Alaska and western Canada. In those areas, male brown bears weigh more than 660 pounds while females weigh more than 440 pounds.
Although bulky they can run 30 miles an hour, fast enough to catch a person who gets between a mother and her cubs. Although called brown bears, their fur actually comes in several colors including brown, reddish, yellow, beige and black.
Habitat and Range
Brown bears are found in North America, parts of Africa, Asia and Europe. Some places brown bears can be seen in the wild in North America include western Canada, Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. They live in the widest variety of habitat of any bear species including deserts, mountains, tundras and forests.
Diet
Brown bears are omnivores. That means they eat both plants and animals. Bears like roots, berries, grass, rodents, moose calves, caribou calves and elk.
Bears usually live by themselves. However, in the summer, large groups of Alaskan brown bears gather at the rivers and fish for salmon swimming upstream to reproduce. The salmon's fat will help keep the bears alive through the winter. In the fall, bears can eat about 90 pounds of food a day in preparation for winter.
Winter Sleep
Brown bears stay alive during winter shortages by digging themselves a hole called a den and entering a deep sleep that lasts four to six months from October or December to March or May. This sleep is sometimes called hibernation. Unlike other hibernating animals, bears never have a dramatic drop in body temperature. Their metabolism slows, their heart rate drops from 70 beats a minute to 10 beats a minute and they stop going to the bathroom. Bears in warmer climates sleep less and some may never enter this deep sleep at all.
Raising Young
Brown bears mate from May to July and the cubs are born in the mother's den between January and March. Female bears give birth to two to four cubs at a time.
The mama bear raises her cubs all by herself. She teaches them what to eat, where to build a den, how to behave around other bears and other survival skills. She also protects them from predators such as wolves and male bears who may try and kill them so they can mate with their mother. The cubs are ready to leave when they are 2 1/2 half years old.