LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Brown Bear: North America
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Brown bears belong to the family Ursidae, which includes eight species.* The Kodiak bear is a subspecies of brown bear found on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Kodiak bears are the largest of all brown bears and the second largest bear in the world. The largest bear is the polar bear, which inhabits the arctic coastal areas of the north.
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The brown bear is the most widespread bear species. They can be found over most of Europe, North America, and northern Asia. The most stable populations of brown bear are found in North America and Russia. In North America, they are found mainly in the northwestern regions of Alaska, Canada and a few scattered populations in the northwestern United States. Their range does not go as far south as it once did, and brown bears are no longer found south of the Mexican border. Only four populations of brown bear remain in central and western Europe: in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, the Pyrenees Mountain Range, the Alps, and the Abruzzo Mountains of Italy.
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Brown bears are brown, right? Well, maybe! They come in all sizes and shades, from a light cream color to almost black. It was once thought that there were 86 different kinds of grizzlies and brown bears in North America alone. Today, scientists agree that there is only one species of brown bear with a lot of variations! Bears in northwestern North America are called Kodiak, or Alaskan brown bears Ursus arctos middendorffi, and tend to be the largest of the species.
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It is smaller and darker than the Kamchatka brown bear, with a differently shaped skull and much larger teeth. The coat is often almost black in color. The skull is longer and narrower, with especially long nasal bones and it is flatter in profile, being less elevated over the nose. The ears are noticeably hairy. Consists of the following races listed by various authorities: lasiotus (northern China), cavifrons (northwestern Manchuria), mandchuricus (Primorsky Krai), jessoensis (Sakhalin), yesoensis (Hokkaido), and melanarctos (Hokkaido). The record bear, obtained in Khabarovsk region scored 27.6 inches.
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Winter dormancy: In the winter when food is unavailable or scarce, most Alaska brown bears enter dens and hibernate through the winter. While in this state, their body temperatures, heart rate, and other metabolic rates are reduced. Their need for food and water is eliminated. In northern areas with long hard winters, bears may spend from 5 to 7 ½ months in dens. In areas with relatively warmer winters, such as Kodiak Island, a few bears may stay active all winter. Pregnant females are usually the first to enter dens in the fall.
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The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a massive omnivorous mammal of the order carnivora, distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It weighs between 130–700 kg (290-1,500 pounds) and its larger populations match the Polar bear as the largest extant land carnivores. While the brown bear's range has shrunk, and it has faced local extinctions, it remains listed as a least concern species with a total population of approximately 200,000. Its principal range countries are Russia, the United States (especially Alaska), and Canada.
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