Quote:
Originally Posted by 911 Rod
(Post 11996869)
I believe these are Brown Bears (Kodiak?) which I believe are much bigger than a Grizzly.
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Yup. The coastal browns, aka "Kodiaks", will attain to over twice (up to three times) the size of the interior, or "grizzly" bear. Interestingly, they are identical genetically. It all comes down to environment, which drives food supply. Coastal browns can go 1,500-1,800 pounds in the wild (the co-star of
Grizzly Adams reportedly topped 2,000). Interior bears go more like 600-700, sometimes topping 800.
The coastal bears enjoy a year-round food supply. The climate is relatively "mild" as compared to what their inland cousins face. It rains a lot (adding to the abundant food supply), but never really freezes over and snows them under. As a result, they don't really "hibernate" in the traditional sense, where their metabolisms all but stop. They essentially just take "long naps" and, as a result, are out feeding while their inland buddies are snoozing.
The interior variety hibernate out of necessity, because their food supply all but disappears for many months through their exceedingly harsh winters. They really pack it on for just over half the year, but lose an awful lot of body mass while hibernating. They are essentially constantly playing "catchup", while their friends on the coast never do lose that body mass, so they continually add to it.
The California Golden Bear was the epitome of this non-hibernating brown bear. They were the biggest ever recorded. Some argue that they were in fact a different sub-species, others argue against that notion. Either way, I, for one, would sure like to see them reintroduced into all of their historic native haunts. Marin County, the Bay Area, etc. I think that would be awesome... :D
