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The Kodiak Bear are the world’s largest canivore and
largest bear. They are actually a type of brown bear. The brown bear
have the widest range of any species of bear in the
 world. Their range
includes northwest North America; northern Europe and Asia from Scandinavia
to eastern Russia.
(Populations of brown bears living in the interior
portion of the continent are referred to as grizzly bears. This
distinguishes them from brown bears living on the coastal areas of Alaska.
As brown bears living in the interior become older, the ends of their hair
develop silvery-gray tips, giving them a "grizzled" appearance, thus they
are called grizzly bear).
But the largest of all brown bears is the Kodiak Brown
Bear. The reason for their enormous size is due to the equally enormous
amount of protein rich salmon that spawn on Kodiak Island and the short
distance they have to travel. Remember, the furthest inland you can be on
anywhere on Kodiak Island is 15 miles! So you have bears with the smallest
home range and highest densities living on Kodiak Island.
There are abundant fish stocks throughout most of their
year when they are not hibernating. There are salmon in the rivers spawning
from late May until late September! During the peaks of the salmon run they
will catch often catch 30 per day and put on 6” of fat before winter! The
salmon diet is supplemented with herbs, roots, rodents, salmonberries,
blueberries, low bush cranberries, carrion and sitka blacktail deer.
All of this adds up to make the largest bears on earth!
When on all fours the Kodiak Bear stands about 5’
tall. They can weigh up over 1,700 pounds (780 kg). Adult males weigh more
than adult females. Compare this with grizzly bears residing in the interior
of Alaska’s mainland that primarily feed on less calorie-rich berries,
vegetation and small mammals, and weigh 330-795 pounds.
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