Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bum here with today's question, what's the difference between black bears and brown bears? The animals we call black bears belong to the species Ursus americanas. Despite their common name, they can be black, brown, gray, whitish, or even blonde in color. Another bear that coexists with it is a separate species known as Ursus arctos, or the brown bear. If you're confused, don't worry. We are
here to clear things up. Just bear with us. You'll never see a wild black bear outside of North America, even though it's the most populous bear species alive today, with an estimated eight hundred thousand animals. The black bear is restricted to Canada, Mexico, Alaska, and the continental United States.
Brown bears are less common in terms of sheer numbers, only about a hundred and ten thousand are thought to exist, but they've got the widest geographic range of any modern ur said indigenous to both North America and Eurasia, wild brown bear populations are dispersed from Spain to Central Canada, and one extinct subspecies lived in Africa as recently as
the nineteen seventies. Brown bears have subspecies galore. If you've ever been to Yellowstone National Park or followed Memphis basketball, you should be familiar with at least one of them. The iconic grizzly bear scientific name Ursus arctos horribilious. Grizzlies once roamed a huge chunk of the North American continent. Due to human activities, however, they've become restricted to Alaska and northwestern Canada, along with portions of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming,
and Washington State. Neither brown nor black bears are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered or threatened. Grizzlies nevertheless enjoy some federal action under the US Endangered Species Act as of this writing. Another brown bear subspecies encountered in this hemisphere is Ursus arctos mindorfi, the Kodiak bear. Found exclusively on Alaska's Kodiak Archipelago. It's one of the biggest predators that now walks the Earth.
They're large enough to sometimes rival the polar bear in size weights of one thousand, sixty to one thousand, one hundred eighty pounds that's about four hundred and eighty to five hundred and thirty five kilos are considered normal for male Kodiak bears. Grizzly males are a little slimmer, averaging between three hundred and eight hundred and sixty pounds that's about a hundred thirty five to three d nine kilos. In both cases, females or sALS belong to a different
size class. Your typical kodiak sow is around twenty lighter and thirty smaller dimension wise than a normal male. Grizzlies have a similar disparity. Standing on all four a grown male brown bear can measure five feet that's one and a half meters tall at the shoulder, and when they rear up, the biggest individuals can assume a towering height of ten feet or three meters. Black bears can't compete
with those dimensions. Their maximum shoulder height is closer to three feet or just shy of a meter, and they stand a mere five to seven feet that's one and a half to two meters tall. When fully reared. Male black bears usually tip the scales at a hundred thirty to five hundred pounds that's about sixty two thirty kilos, where a sous way between fifty and two hundred and fifty pounds, that's forty and ten kilos. Thankfully, you don't need measuring tape or a Yogi bear sized bathroom scale
to tell black and brown bears apart. Brown bear shoulders aren't just taller by comparison, they're also more prominent, giving the creatures a distinctive hump when viewed in profile. It's a feature that black bears lack. The black bear has straighter, shorter claws the help it climb trees and tear up logs. Meanwhile, the brown bears long and curvy claws make great digging tools.
They also leave some very different paw prints behind. Brown bear four paws leave a wider gap between the toes and the pad that sits behind them, and overall, black bear pandprints look rounder a relative to its body size. Black bears have longer ears, and the facial differences don't stop there. If you were to somehow draw a line from each bear's nose to the space between its eyes, you'd find that brown bears have a more concave face.
They also have different living habits, whereas black bears climb trees throughout their lives. Brown bears stop doing this when they grow up. The two species are crafty omnivores who will eat a wide range of plant and animal matter, and sometimes this means competing for the same resources. A British Columbian salmon are hunted by black and brown bears alike. Brown bears are a able to kill much larger game than their cousins, though black bears can even be on
their menu. Of course, all of these things are best observed from a nice, safe distance. Zoologists consider brown bears to be the more aggressive species, but both animals can maim and kill human beings. Wall attacks are statistically rare. There's no reason to tempt fate by getting too close to a wild ersin look up the U S. National Park Service Safety Guide to bear encounters if you happen to be planning to explore black or brown bears natural habitats.
Today's episode was based on the article What's the Difference between a Brown bear and a Black Bear? On how stuff Works dot Com written by Mark Vancini. Brain stuff It's production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay four more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.