Grizzly Bear
Ursus arctos horribilis
Classificaion
Domain Eukarya - Organisms that have a nucleus. They can be single celled or multicellular.
Kingdom Animalia - Animals that must consume other organisms for nutrients, are able to move at some point of their life, and are multicellular.
Phylum Chordata - Contains animals that have bilateral symmetry, have a segmented body, and have a hollow nerve cord that runs through the body.
Sub-Phylum Vertebrata - Animals that have a vertebrae that goes from head to tail. They also have an endoskeleton and are able to move due to the muscles that are attached to their endoskeleton.
Class Mammalia - Animals in this category have hair their entire life. Most mammals breed during a specific season and are vocal meaning they communicate with others using sounds.
Order Carnivora - Mediums sized animals that aren't too small so they wouldn't be able to kill their prey or too large so they wouldn't be able to satisfy their diets. They mostly have a thick coat of hair and have diverse food habits.
Family Ursidae - Family that only contains bears. They have claws that cannot retract which they use for ripping and digging. They mostly have hairy soles, but bears who climb trees have naked soles.
Genus Ursus - Contains black bears, brown bears and their sub-species, and polar bears.
Species arctos - Brown bear. Grizzly bear is a sub-species of brown bears.
General Description
Size Difference
Food Gathering
Length
Head and Body: 5 2/3-9 1/3 feet (1.7272-2.8448 meters)
Tail: 2-8 inches (5.08-20.32 cm)
Weight
Height
Fur Coloration
Habitat
Brown Bears live in many types of habitats ranging from the edge of deserts to high mountain forests and ice fields
In North America they tend to live in open areas like tundras, alpine meadows, and coastlines. Brown Bears are found mostly in forests where there is dense cover where it can shelter by day.
Diet
The Grizzly bear is an omnivore. It eats lots of things like fish, honey, ants, and even beached whales.
Even so, 90% of their diet is from plants. They are usually very solitary animals, avoiding each other until the salmon breeding season where large amounts of bears gather at rivers to eat salmon.
Predators
Range
Grizzly Bear With Cubs
Grizzly Bear Range
This map shows the range of where brown bears and their sub-species live.
Grizzly Bear Hump
Physical Adaptations
Grizzly bears have good physical stength and can run quickly over short distances. Physical strength helps them run faster to catch prey. Since they are strong they can defend themselves or mainly their cubs from attackers. Grizzly bears also have a layer of fat that helps them insulated and help them stay warm. Also to help them keep warm, grizzly bears have a thick and shaggy coat of hair that keeps them warm and preserve heat. The grizzly bear has a good sense of smell which allows them to find food. Grizzly bears also have strong jaws and claws which allows them to kill their prey.
Behavioral Adaptations
Grizzly bears communicate by making marks on trees. These marks are to show reproduction status. Grizzly bears make a bed out of dry vegetation after they have dug their own den. They do this for shelter and a place to stay. Grizzly bears hibernate during the winter. It isn't a full hibernation since it stil wakes up to come out of it's den. It does this to survive during the cold, harsh winters. Grizzly bears travel large distances during the fall to get to salmon streams and places where there are high berry populations. They do this so they can eat more food. Grizzly bears travel large distances during the fall to get to salmon streams and places where there are high berry populations. They do this so they can eat more food. Grizzly bears that are adolescents or mother with little cubs tend to go to mountains because adult males tend not to live there. Adult males will kill another bear if it is a cub or adolescent.
References
Ballenger, L. 2002. "Ursus arctos" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed
March 11, 2015 at http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ursus_arctos/
Brown bear ursus arctos. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/brown-bear/
Burton, M. (2002). Brown bear. In International wildlife encyclopedia (3rd ed.,
Vol. 3, pp. 292-295). New York: Marshall Cavendish.
Grizzly bear. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2015, from Hinterland Who's Who
website: http://www.hww.ca/en/species/mammals/grizzly-bear.html
Grizzly bears facts. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from
http://www.bearplanet.org/grizzlybear.shtml
S., M. (n.d.). Grizzly bear. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/grizzly_bear.html
Ursus arctos brown bear. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2015, from Encyclopedia of
Life website: http://eol.org/pages/328581/overview