Brown Bears (Info, Pics and Videos)

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This goes to speculation part, but I thought to put these here and everyone interested can think a bit. 

One picture about Kamchatka brown bear range:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Then one picture (pretty difficult to find a good picture for Ussuri/Amur brown bear range) where rough ranges of brown bears in Eurasia:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

I wanted to put these pictures here, because often is mentioned, that there are very big individuals time to time among Ussuri brown bears. Then again usually they seem to be same size as brown bears tend to be when talking about inland brown bears/grizzlies. Males roughly between 200-400 kg, but usually a 300 kg bear can be considered as big and if closer 400 kg, then really big. 

Still many sources suggest, that there would be even 500-550 kg males sometimes. That kind of weight then again is usually mentioned as something only..... should I say "salmon eating bears" can reach, so there we are talking about Alaskan peninsula, Kodiak islands and Kamchatka peninsula. Then again male bears are known to travel several hundreds of kilometers in short times during summer and rutting time.

Even though I have been often thinking, that maybe those giants are related to Kamchatka bears, only recently I looked really closer for ranges of these subspecies and noticed, that they actually  seem to meet. Some crossbreeding, some big Kamchatka males roaming more south than usually started suddenly feel more logical than before.

Not the easiest thing to find really good information about these bears and Ussuri brown bears especially... but something to think about. After all contradiction between some weighings and then stories and claims by hunters etc. is quite big. This kind of "help" from bigger "cousins" could offer one possible explanation.


Naturally there are exceptionally big individuals otherwise too, as captive and famous Juuso bear proves. It is clearly bigger than other captive Eurasian brown bears in Finland. For instance in his prime clearly over 100 kg heavier than other male bears in Kuusamo predator center.

Here some numbers to give image.
Autumn 2011 Juuso was 483 kg, older male Vyöti was 341 kg.
Spring 2012 Juuso was 370 kg and Vyöti was 250 kg.

I actually finally found an article, where was clearly said, that Juuso is offspring of Vyöti.

But as said, what comes to relationship between Kamchatka bears and observations about really huge Ussuri brown bears time to time, this is speculation and everyone are free to think what they want. If someone finds some information, which doesn´t appear too easily in normal google search, more than welcome to be shared here. Reply