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Carnivorous and Omnivores Animals, Excluding Felids
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Bears
Bear Size ~
Bear Size ~
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Bear Size ~
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The California Grizzly - bear in mind - from the collections of the Bancroft Library:
On a poster pictured in this book by P.T. Barnum: Great California Bear!! - Weighing 1988 Pounds! Standing 4 feet 6 inches in height; girts 4 feet around the neck, 7 feet around the body; and 14 inches between the ears. The Biggest Bear in America!
Brown Bears by Melissa Gish.
The largest brown bear ever, a 2,130-pound ( 966 kg ) Kodiak named Clyde, died at the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1987.
The Grizzly by Enos A. Mills.
The grizzly always appears larger than he really is. The average weight is between three hundred and fifty to six hundred pounds; males weigh a fourth more than females. Few grizzlies weigh more than seven hundred pounds, though exceptional specimens are known to have weighed more than one thousand. Adams gave the weight of "Samson," a California grizzly, as fifteen hundred pounds, and a few Alaskan grizzlies, judging by their skins, may have weighed more than "Samson." It may be that years ago, when not so closely hunted, the grizzly lived longer and grew to a larger size than he attains today.
The Grizzly by Enos A. Mills.
The largest grizzly track that I have measured was slightly more than thirteen inches long, and seven and one half inches wide at the widest point. These measurements did not include the clawmarks. In places where the bear had slipped on snowy or muddy ground the track with clawmarks was of most formidable appearance. Many of the big Alaskan grizzlies have large feet, sometimes making a track eighteen inches in length. However, in the Rocky Mountains I have seen a large track that had been made by a comparatively small bear. More than once I have seen bears weighing less than four hundred pounds whose feet were larger than those of other bears who weighed upwards of six hundred pounds. A large grizzly bear track does not necessarily indicate that it is the track of a large bear.
Yellowstone Bears in the Wild by James C. Halfpenny.
Size and Sensibility - Size counts. My bear is bigger than your bear! Perhaps size is the most common topic for bear watchers. It is certainly a cause for bragging rights. Of course, bear size depends on where you are and who is telling the story. Famed naturalist Adolph Murie long ago noted that the biggest bears were always furthest away from any scales. In the Yellowstone area, bears are always biggest at the K-Bar Saloon in Gardiner. Many people wonder if half-ton grizzlies roam the GYE. Paul Schullery noted historian and above all ursophile, reported in 'The Bears of Yellowstone' that on July 9, 1870, Bart Henderson shot a large grizzly near Cooke City. According to Bart's story, "We was attacked by an old boar bear. We soon killed him. He proved to be the largestever killed in the mountains, weighing 960 pounds." Paul notes that we do not know how, or really if, the bear was weighed. I am only going to consider bears that were actually weighed or had their weights carefully estimated by chest girth measurements - no stories, no tales, no matter how good. The heaviest Yellowstone grizzly "with documentation" that I know of was killed in 1916 near Old Faithful by Arthur Young for an exhibit in the California Academy of Science in San Francisco. When weighed in sections, the animal totaled 916 pounds. Dr. Saxton Pope, who also shot at the bear, estimated that 10 percent of the bear's live weight may have been lost as blood and waste during processing. If true, the bear weighed about 1,000 pounds. The bear was shot in May and reportedly had no fat left over after hibernation. How accurate were the scales in 1916? It should be noted that this bear was probably feeding at a garbage dump. Then there is the legend of the Thousand Pound Bear named "Bruno" ( grizzly number 14 ), studied by the Craighead brothers. The heaviest recorded weight for Bruno was 890 pounds when live-trapped on September 5. Since the brothers figured he would put on additional weight before hibernation, Bruno was nicknamed the Thousand Pound Bear, even though he wasn't. The Craigheads also trapped Fidel ( grizzly number 206 ), which weighed 800 pounds, No. 115 which weighed 660 pounds, No. 13 which weighed 645 pounds, and Ingemar ( No 12 ) which weighed 620 pounds. All were males. They also reported the average weight of grizzly bears contending for top leadership at the Trout Creek garbage dump was 575 pounds. All weights were taken in June or July. ( In some accounts referring to the Craighead research there are reports of a 1,120 pound ( or 500 kg ) grizzly bear. I have not been able to find such a bear in any of their scientific articles.
The Bear Almanac by Gary Brown.
"... the largest predators ( polar bears ) that stalk the earth," writes Charles Feazel in 'White Bear'. "If he wishes Nanook could slap a giraffe in the face." "Of all the bears in the world, the Kodiak is the largest," according to Pat Cherr in 'The Bear in Fact and Fiction'. "He is the largest land-dwelling flesh-eater in the world." "Polar bears are the largest of the North American bears," according to Peter Clarkson and Linda Sutterlin in 'Bear Essentials'. "A full-grown Alaskan brown bear is the most impressive wild animal on this continent," relates Clyde Ormand in his 'Complete Book of Hunting'. "The Alaskan brown bear ( Ursus ) has for decades been considered North America's largest carnivore..." "As to maximum body size probably the polar bear exceeds the coastal brownie," according to bear hunting guide Duncan Gilchrist in 'All about Bears'. "A lifesize white bear may indeed be the world's most impressive mount." "There is little question," according to Ben East in 'Bears', "that on the average the brown bear is the biggest land carnivore left on earth." "Polar bears," writes Terry Domico in 'Bears of the World', "are among the largest members of the bear family." "On Alaskan islands and in Siberia," write Paul Shepard and Barry Sanders in 'The Sacred Paw', "the brown bear vies with the polar bear as the largest predatory land mammal..." "Judged by skull size, the yardstick the Boone and Crockett Club uses in scoring trophy bears, the polar does not quite equal the brown, for the reason that his more slender head counts against him," notes Ben East. "In weight he rivals the giant brown bear of Alaska. Perhaps the greatest difference between the sea bear and the land bears is in his ( polar bear's ) looks." "... the bear that most sportsmen call the Kodiak, the biggest bear on earth and also the biggest land carnivore," writes Ben East in 'The Ben East Hunting Book'. "The polar bear," writes Frederick Drimmer in 'The Animal Kingdom', is one of the largest carnivorous animals in the world, narrowly surpassed by the gigantic Alaskan brown bear.
The Bear Almanac by Gary Brown.
The polar bear eats skin and blubber first ( 100 to 150 pounds of blubber per meal ). Will beg for blubber from whaling ships. Stomach capacity is 154 pounds ( large male ).
Animal facts and feats by Gerald L. Wood.
The greatest weight recorded for a polar bear in the wild is an incredible 1002 kg ( 2,210 pounds ) for a white colossus shot by Arthur Dubs of Medford, Oregon, U.S.A., at the polar entrance to Kotzebue Sound, NW Alaska, in 1960. In April 1962 the 3.39 m ( 11 feet 1.5 inch ) tall mounted animal was put on display at the Seattle World Fair. That it is possible for polar bears to exceed 907 kg ( 2,000 pounds - 1 ton ) has also been confirmed by Ognev, who says that some of the old males killed on Spitzbergen have scaled as much as 60 poods - 979 kg ( 2,160 pounds ), but even a weight of 725 kg ( 1,600 pounds ) must be considered exceptional. There are few records of captive polar bears exceeding 453 kg ( 1,000 pounds ). A large male which died at New York Zoological Gardens ( Bronx Zoo ) in 1960 scaled at 467 kg ( 1,030 pounds ) ( Crandall, 1964 ). Another male named "Harold" who died at Dudley Zoo in November 1965 reportedly measured 2.74 m ( 9 feet ) nose to tip of tail and weighed 508 kg ( 1,120 pounds ), but the compiler has not been able to confirm these figures. Even larger examples have probably been kept in Russian zoos, but no statistics are available.
Guinness Book of World Records 2015 - largest terrestrial carnivore - The polar bear ( Ursus maritimus ) weighs 880 to 1,320 pounds ( 400 to 600 kg ) and is 7 feet 10 inches to 8 feet 6 inches ( 2.4 to 2.6 m ) long. It feeds on the largest prey, killing walruses up to 1,100 pounds ( 500 kg ) and beluga whales of 1,322 pounds ( 600 kg ) to fill a stomach capacity of ca. 150 pounds ( 68 kg ) or 9 pounds ( 4 kg ) more than an adult human male.
http://polarbearscience.com/2014/05/10/evolution-by-geneticsts-again-yet-another-date-for-when-polar-bears-arose/
“For polar bears, being tubby is a way of life. Fat can make up 50% of their body weight; the blubber-laden seals they eat make bacon look downright healthy. Now, a new, extensive comparison of the genomes of polar bears and their closest relative, the brown bear, has revealed how polar bears survive such unhealthy diets.”
The inland grizzly, mature 10+ year old males, are only slightly larger than tigers. Considering mature male tigers, the average ranges from about 420 to 450 pounds while 480 pounds is well above average. A 550 pound tiger is considered as monstrous. As for the grizzly, and we are not talking those in desolate locations such as the Gobi bear or the barren ground grizzly but rather those living in relatively healthy environments, he will likely average somewhere between 500 and 550 pounds. From 550 to 600 pounds is considered above average while from 650 to 700 is exceptional. Above 700 pounds for the inland variety is monstrous.
http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl..._Vol_7.pdf
Looking at the size chart, the average male Yellowstone grizzly among those randomly darted and weighed from 9 to 16 years old averaged 509 pounds ( 231 kg ). 
NJ Hunter Bags 693-Pound Black Bear
 *This image is copyright of its original author A 300-pound black bear is considered a trophy across much of Canada and the Northern U.S., yet Eastern states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey continue to breed giants with weights that exceed the mass of the average grizzly bear. Read more: http://griffinsguide.com/content/2014/12/15/nj-hunter-bags-693-pound-black-bear/#ixzz3xcFS6M8Y
[*]natgeoThe American black bear (Ursus americanus) is the smallest and most widespread species of bear in North America. Research from within Yellowstone National Park suggests that adult males average 262 lbs (118.8), while females average 148 lbs (67.1 kg). Do you know how many different colors of “black” bears can be seen in the wild?
Jump to my feed @drewtrush if you want to see the next image in this sequence and find out the answer to this wildlife pop-quiz!! ________________________________________ @natgeocreative @thephotosociety #wildlifepopquiz |
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