Russian Brown Bears

[BorneanTiger]

I mentioned here that the 3 biggest bears ever known to have lived in the Holocene are the Kodiak and (recently extinct) Californian brown bears of North America and the polar bear (which is present in the extreme north of Russia and Europe), in terms of maximum reported weights, but not necessarily in terms of breadth of skull. The largest of the Eurasian brown bears, that is the Kamchatka brown bear, has a skull which is broader than that of its Ussuri relative, and compared to that of the Kodiak bear, the breadth of the skull is much greater in proportion to its length, the anterior narial opening is much shorter, and the molars differ in relative size and form. The greatest skull length for males is 40.3–43.6 cm (15.9–17.2 inches), and they are 25.8–27.7 cm (10.2–10.9 inches) wide, while the skulls of females measure 37.2–38.6 cm (14.6–15.2 inches) in length and 21.6–24.2 cm (8.5–9.5 inches) in width: http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arct...pdf#page=8, https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2.../kamchatka

Despite being fairly large, weighing up to 650 kg (1,433 lbs) or more for males, Kamchatkan bears are generally not dangerous to humans, and only 1% of encounters result in attack. The first Europeans who went to Kamchatka in the 19th century, although surprised by the number and size of bears there, observed that they were relatively harmless, compared to their East Siberian counterparts. However, in July 2008, a platinum-mining compound in the Olyutorsky District of Kamchatka Krai was besieged by a group of 30 bears who killed two guards and prevented workers from leaving their homes: https://archive.org/stream/mammalsofsov2.../kamchatka, http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl..._Vol_9.pdf, http://www.kamchatkapeninsula.com/bear.html, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...387144.ece

Kamchatkan bear near Dvuhyurtochnoe Lake, credit: Robert F. Tobler
   

Skulls: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page...9/mode/1up
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