Kodiak Bear

Kodiak bears are a recognized subspecies of the brown bear.  They are considered grizzly bears by some.  Others call them Alaskan brown bears.  Polar bears are around the same size.  Kodiak bears are about twice as big as grizzlies.  C.H. Merriam was the first to categorize the bear into its own subspecies.  The taxonomist named the animal Ursus middendorffi after the famed Baltic naturalist Alexander von Middendorff.

The average brown bear weighs between two hundred and fifty and seven hundred and ninety-five pounds.  Kodiaks average up to one thousand three hundred and twenty.  Females can grow to seven hundred pounds.  Males may reach up to fourteen hundred.  Some breach fifteen hundred pounds before hibernation.  The bears are capable of increasing their weight twenty to thirty percent. 

The largest wild Kodiak on record was one thousand six hundred and fifty-six pounds.  The biggest domestic bear lived at the Dakota Zoo located in Bismarck, North Dakota.  His name was Clyde.  He was over two thousand one hundred and thirty pounds.  Clyde died in 1987 at the age of 22.  He was ensconced in a twenty-three-centimeter fat layer when the final recordings were logged. Rest in peace Clyde.

Bare Features

Kodiak shoulders stand four feet four inches from the ground.  The average length is eight feet.  Large males can extend to nine feet eight inches when they stand upright on their hind legs. The standard method of evaluating the size of bears is through quantifying their skulls.  Calipers are used to take two measurements from the front tooth to the back of the sagittal crest and between the cheek bones.  The sum is the total.  The largest was about thirty-one inches.  Eight of the top ten brown bears in history were found in Kodiak.

Three thousand five hundred was the total population in 2005.  The number has grown over the last few decades.  The home range is specifically locked to the Kodiak Archipelago (Uganik, Raspberry, Shuyak, Afognak, Kodiak and Sitkalidak islands).  The bears are active in the daytime.  Competition for space and resources drives some to adopt a nocturnal routine.  It is common in Kodiak City.  Food sources are varied and bountiful.  The access and diversity have created small territories.  They are left undefended and overlap among the bears.  The average size is fifty square miles and the smallest home range in the brown bear kingdom.

Dens are used at the end of October.  The pregnant are the first to go.  Males are last to enter and the first to leave.  They poke their noses out in April.  The females and cubs stay inside until late June.  The denning period is longer on the northern section of the islands.  The shelter is dug within a mountain side or hill.  Twenty five percent of adult Kodiak bears do not participate and are somewhat active during the frigid winter months.

Bear Features

Mating starts at the age of five.  The average sow is near nine years old when she is successful.  A period of four years usually passes between each litter.  Cubs are produced through a female’s life.  Reproduction slows after their twentieth birthday.  Copulation occurs from May to June.  Coupling is monogamous and happens from two to fourteen days.  Babies are born in January or February.  They weigh less than one pound when they first inhale the stale Alaskan air of the den.

Their eyes are closed.  Hair is sparse.  Several months of suckling follow.  Its June when they exit.  They weigh twenty pounds when the sun warms their new fur.  The average litter size is two to three.  Up to six are possible.  The higher number could be from adoption.  The adolescents stay with mom for three years.  Half will die.  Cannibalism from adult males is the number one cause of death.  The ladies stay near mamma bear’s home range.  The boys flee and forage their own path.  The oldest male Kodiak bear found in the wild was twenty-seven.  The eldest female was thirty-five.

Grasses and forbs and other vegetation is eaten in the Spring to replace lost weight.  Animal carcasses are consumed when available.  Summer brings salmon.  The fish appear in the lakes and streams from May to September.  The flesh, brain and eggs are prioritized for their nutritional value.  Berries ripen at the end of Summer.  Seaweed and invertebrates are plucked from the beaches.  Cattle, deer, mountain goats, and elk are devoured.  The internal organs are preferred.  Garbage from humans is gobbled down in all seasons.

Kodiak bears are intelligent.  They are solitary in nature.  Concentrated food sources create strenuous feeding groups that encourage intricate social behavior.  Up to sixty bears may congregate in streams, fruit patches, near whale carcasses and garbage dumps.  Time has taught the bears to minimize interspecies fighting to maximize food consumption.  People are avoided.  Less than one human is injured on the islands a year.

Kodiak Bear Scientific Classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Genus:	Ursus
Species:	U. arctos
Subspecies:	U. a. middendorffi