Where are they found?
In Europe, they live east of the Stanovoi Range in Russia and in an extremely fragmented population in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Other small remnant populations can be found in India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Brown Bears inhabit dense forests, tundra and lower alpine mountain regions.

What are they?
A mammal.

What do they look like?
One of the largest and most widely distributed Bear species, Brown Bears weigh between 300 and 860 pounds and can be up to 9'6" in total body length. They are usually dark brown in colour but can vary from a light cream colour to almost black. If the tips of the guard hairs are white, they give the Bear a grizzled appearance, hence the term Grizzly Bear.

How long do they live? Bears should live to be 30 - 40 years old. The bears at Blair Drummond are over thirty years old! What do they eat? Brown Bears are omnivorous, eating a mixed diet of grasses, fruits, bulbs and roots, insects, fish and small animals. In a few areas they are known to be predators of larger animals such as caribou and moose. They will also scavenge carrion when available, including whale, walrus and seals that have washed up on shore.

Breeding
Female Bears reach sexual maturity at around four and a half years of age. Mating will occur between May and July, with a pair coming together for one or two weeks and mating several times. Cubs are born between January and March. A female can have up to four cubs which will stay with her for up to two and a half years.

Are they rare?
Brown Bears are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Brown Bears in some areas live in isolated pockets of land. These places are subject to humans taking over the land, which means habitat loss for the Bears. Illegal hunting continues to be a threat. Landowners see the bears as threats to their livestock and poachers are interested in their hides, teeth, claws and internal organs for the Asian medicinal market.

Did you know?
Brown bears are solitary animals except for females with cubs.
Brown bears can be seen in close proximity in areas of extremely abundant food sources such as dump sites, berry patches and salmon spawning areas in America.