This Is Why The Kodiak Bears Are Bigger Than The Grizzly Bears

This is why Kodiak bears are bigger than grizzly bears. Brown bears are some of the biggest and most powerful animals walking the planet today. But did you know that not all brown bears are the same? That's right. In reality, there are several subspecies, each with its own special characteristics and traits. In today's video, we will look at two of the most renowned brown bear subspecies, the grizzly and Kodiak. We'll run through some basic information about them before taking a closer look at why Kodiak bears tend to grow larger than their grizzly cousins. Let's get started. Size Matters Brown bears are the most widely distributed bear species around today, occupying patches and swaths across North America, Europe, and Asia. Obviously, such a wide range consists of a lot of environment types, which means that these bears are quite adaptable and resilient in the face of many pressures. However, as you already know, different environments require different forms of adaptation. These unique adaptations can differ to the extent that some animals are further classified into subspecies. Elk, for example, are divided into multiple subspecies. Elk from Canada, for instance, are classified as a different subspecies to elk from Siberia or China. Most bear experts agree that the same principle applies to brown bears, as a number of characteristics appear unique to bears from a particular part of the world. However, there is still plenty of hot debate about whether such differences mean bears can be truly ordered into separate subspecies or whether it's just a case of different areas having their own interpretation of what a brown bear is. Dissenting voices in opposition to the consensus argue the latter point. The view in this camp is that the brown bear is more or less the same animal with unique geographic adaptations, only being a result of favorable traits. Basically, they don't subscribe to the notion that brown bears need to be split into different subspecies. That said, statistical data and observations show that, at the very least, brown bears are uniquely adapted to different environmental and lifestyle factors. The subjects of today's video certainly show this, as we'll soon see. Let's start by looking at the grizzly bear, also known as Ursus arctus horribilis. Now, the origins of the term grizzly are a little fuzzy, but the general consensus is that it refers to the gray-tipped or grizzled black-brown fur commonly found on brown bears of continental North America. The other belief is that the word actually comes from grizzly, an obvious nod to the bear's ability and tendency to rip most other animals to bloody shreds. Regardless of what the name really means, grizzly is pretty much the synonym for brown bear in the U.S. and Canada. Grizzlies are descended from the Eurasian brown bear populations that migrated into the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge sometime between 200,000 and 110,000 years ago. At their absolute peak, grizzlies ranged all the way from Alaska to Mexico. However, they have a significantly reduced range these days. Mexican and Californian grizzlies are completely gone, and the rest are largely found in Alaska, western Canada, and the northwestern parts of the mainland U.S. They are large, omnivorous beasts with well-earned reputations for life-threatening violence. When it comes to walking through or camping in North American woods, the grizzly bear is unanimously the last animal anyone ever wants to run into. Grizzlies are quite variable in size, mainly because size is heavily influenced by location and time of the year. Coastal grizzlies, for instance, are quite bigger than their inland cousins, and bears before hibernation are significantly larger than bears after hibernation. Also, males reach much greater sizes than females. Generally, though, weight can be anywhere from 209 pounds to 858 pounds. Body length is usually between 78 and 94 inches, while shoulder height averages about 40 inches. They can stand up to 9 feet tall on their hind legs. Coastal male grizzly bears tend to occupy the upper ends of the size ranges, while inland females make up the bottom. Now, let's talk about another famous North American brown bear, the Kodiak. Also known as Ursus arctus middendorfi, the Kodiak bear is exclusively found on the Kodiak Island archipelago, just off the coast of Alaska. These bears are, therefore, also known as Alaskan brown bears, which adds a bit of confusion because grizzlies in Alaska are called that too. However, the extreme sizes attained by bears on the archipelago have gone a long way to convincing most experts that they are indeed a unique subspecies. Females have a typical weight range of 399 to 701 pounds, while males have a range of 600 to 1,400 pounds. Some exceptional males can reach or exceed 1,500 pounds during the pre-hibernation bulking period. The tallest Kodiaks also reach heights of 9.8 feet, which is quite taller than grizzlies. The heaviest specimen on record was a captive male called Clyde, who weighed an astonishing 2,130 pounds when he died at the Dakota Zoo in 1987. The tallest ever recorded was another male, Teddy, who was about 11 feet tall on his hind legs. Also, fun fact, Teddy starred as the titular villain in the 1976 horror film Grizzly because of his immense size. And you know what makes the Kodiak bear's size even more fascinating? The fact that they don't have any marked differences in lifestyle or diet from the mainland brown bears. They have the same omnivorous diet consisting of grass, veggies, fruits, roots, fish, and the odd steak. Of course, one reason behind such size is the general rule of coastal bears being bigger than inland ones. Bears near the beach have greater access to protein-rich fish and shellfish, which affords them great size. As island bears, Kodiaks are basically all coastal bears. This means seafood is a consistent part of their diet, and they are guaranteed to meet and reproduce with bears loaded up on great fish protein too, which produces cubs with even more growth potential. However, fish and crabs aren't the Kodiak bear's only secret. They also benefit from a phenomenon known as island gigantism, which is when an isolated subgroup of an animal population grows larger than the main population norm because of factors stemming from that isolation. In the case of the Kodiak bears, they are isolated from mainland bears by a long stretch of sea. But what growth factors have they gained by such separation? Well, let's start by looking at how long they have been isolated. According to geological analysis, the Kodiak islands have been physically separated from mainland North America since at least 12,000 years ago, the end of the last ice age. Genetic testing also reveals that Kodiak bears are most closely related to brown bears in the Alaskan Peninsula and Kamchatka, Russia. This shows that, like grizzlies, Kodiak bears are descended from Eurasian brown bears that crossed the Bering land bridge. However, it doesn't seem that any Kodiak bear ancestors ventured as far south as the modern U.S. or Mexico. Needless to say, the vast North American mainland afforded its brown bear populations a lot of room for expansion but at the cost of a myriad of threats. Other carnivores are just one example. Grizzly bears may be the scariest thing in the woods these days, but that wasn't always the case. During the brown bear's 200,000-year stay on the continent, it has shared environments with prehistory's most formidable killers. Big cats like the saber-toothed smilodons and the giant American lion were massive problems for everyone during their day. With body weights exceeding 600 pounds and potential group hunting, these cats would have been existential threats for both adult bears and their more vulnerable cubs. Brown bears also had to worry about wolves and giant hyenas too. These pack hunters were armed with brutal teeth and insane endurance, making escape very difficult. We also can't forget about the other bears that were around then too. Giant short-faced bears would have dwarfed the brown bears, who would have found themselves on the menu if they didn't run. Of course, all of these frightening extinct beasts pale to the threat posed by man. Humans and human activity posed and continue to pose countless threats to bears on the mainland. Hunting, either for food or sport, often involves targeting large individuals, which takes those genes out of the population's reproductive pool. Sport hunting in particular is a domain where size matters above all else. The bigger the prize, the greater the glory. Activities like agriculture, urban development, and mining are the main culprits behind habitat destruction plaguing bears all over the world, and the grizzly has not been exempt. Less space naturally means the land cannot properly support very large bears, so they get smaller and smaller as their home ranges diminish. The story is a little different on the Kodiak Islands, which are pretty much virgin territory as far as humans and human activity are concerned. As such, the bears here have not been persecuted to the same extent as their mainland relatives, which has allowed them to live and thrive in peace. Today, the Kodiak Archipelago is highly protected by both government and non-governmental conservation groups. Bear hunting is highly restricted and permitted only when it is sustainable, such as when populations grow too big and warrant culling. The location and protection of these islands also makes poaching very hard logistics-wise, and the consequences for doing so are very steep. Unfortunately, human activity is on the up, even in Alaska and surrounding islands, which makes conflict pretty much inevitable. As you can imagine, livestock farmers have little love for thousand pound opportunistic predators, and the region's growing salmon industry occasionally has its commercial targets impacted by hungry bears feasting on their product. As more local folks and businesses grow disgruntled with life alongside bears, so will the pressure on the government to lessen restrictions on bear hunting and culling increase. It's a precarious balance, and we can only wait and see what the future has in store for these very special brown bears. When it comes to natural predators, the Kodiak bear has zero. There are no big cats to speak of, and the resident canines wouldn't dare come near a brown bear of any size. Even as cubs, there is very little to worry about apart from other Kodiak bears, of course. Male bears are the number one cub killers on the islands, going as far as cannibalizing cubs sired by other males. This brutal behavior, though cruel, actually goes a long way to maintaining healthy bear populations. Bears are largely solitary creatures, so such conflicts are often a sign that they are overcrowded, so the cub killing is kind of an ecological benefit. But that's a topic for another video. Ultimately, the Kodiak reigns as the king of the brown bears because it is a coastal bear that has been allowed to live away from most of the threats the grizzly has faced for generations. These factors have combined to make it not only the biggest bear around, but also a strong contender for the title of the world's biggest bear.