Brown Bear

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a bear species found across Eurasia and North
America.[1][2] In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly
bears. It is one of the largest living terrestrial members of the order Carnivora,
rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus),
which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on average.[3][4][5][6][7]
The brown bear's range includes parts of Russia, Central Asia, China, Canada, the
United States, Hokkaido, Scandinavia, the Balkans, the Picos de Europa and the
Carpathian region, especially Romania, Bulgaria, Iran, Anatolia and the Caucasus.
[1][8] The brown bear is recognized as a national and state animal in several
European countries.[9]
While the brown bear's range has shrunk and it has faced local extinctions, it
remains listed as a least concern species by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with a total population of approximately 200,000. As
of 2012, this and the American black bear are the only bear species not classified
as threatened by the IUCN.[1][2][10] Populations that were hunted to extinction in
the 19th and 20th centuries are the Atlas bear of North Africa and the Californian,
Ungavan[11][12] and Mexican populations of the grizzly bear of North America. Many
of the populations in the southern parts of Eurasia are highly endangered as well.
[1][13] One of the smaller-bodied forms, the Himalayan brown bear, is critically
endangered, occupying only 2% of its former range and threatened by uncontrolled
poaching for its body parts.[14] The Marsican brown bear of central Italy is one of
several currently isolated populations of the Eurasian brown bear and is believed
to have a population of just 50 to 60 bears.[9][15]
The brown bear is sometimes referred to as the bruin, from Middle English. This
name originated in the fable History of Reynard the Fox translated by William
Caxton from Middle Dutch bruun or bruyn, meaning brown (the color).[16] In the mid-
19th century United States, the brown bear was termed "Old Ephraim" and sometimes
as "Moccasin Joe".[17]
The scientific name of the brown bear, Ursus arctos, comes from the Latin ursus,
meaning "bear",[18] and from ἄρκτος arktos, the Greek word for bear.[19]
Generalized names and evolution
Brown bears are thought to have evolved from Ursus etruscus in Asia.[20][21] The
brown bear, per Kurten (1976), has been stated as "clearly derived from the Asian
population of Ursus savini about 800,000 years ago; spread into Europe, to the New
World."[22] A genetic analysis indicated that the brown bear lineage diverged from
the cave bear species complex approximately 1.2–1.4 million years ago, but did not
clarify if U. savini persisted as a paraspecies for the brown bear before
perishing.[23] The oldest fossils positively identified as from this species occur
in China from about 0.5 million years ago. Brown bears entered Europe about 250,000
years ago and North Africa shortly after.[20][24] Brown bear remains from the
Pleistocene period are common in the British Isles, where it is thought they might
have outcompeted cave bears (Ursus spelaeus). The species entered Alaska 100,000
years ago, though they did not move south until 13,000 years ago.[20] It is
speculated that brown bears were unable to migrate south until the extinction of
the much larger giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus).[25][26]
Several paleontologists suggest the possibility of two separate brown bear

migrations: inland brown bears, also known as grizzlies, are thought to stem from
narrow-skulled bears which migrated from northern Siberia to central Alaska and the
rest of the continent, while Kodiak bears descend from broad-skulled bears from
Kamchatka, which colonized the Alaskan peninsula. Brown bear fossils discovered in
Ontario, Ohio, Kentucky and Labrador show that the species occurred farther east
than indicated in historic records.[20] In North America, two types of the
subspecies Ursus arctos horribilis are generally recognized—the coastal brown bear
and the inland grizzly bear; these two types broadly define the range of sizes of
all brown bear subspecies.[13]
Scientific taxonomy
Main article: Subspecies of brown bear
Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos), the nominate subspecies
There are many methods used by scientists to define bear species and subspecies, as
no one method is always effective. Brown bear taxonomy and subspecies
classification has been described as "formidable and confusing," with few
authorities listing the same specific set of subspecies.[27] Genetic testing is now
perhaps the most important way to scientifically define brown bear relationships
and names. Generally, genetic testing uses the word clade rather than species
because a genetic test alone cannot define a biological species. Most genetic
studies report on how closely related the bears are (or their genetic distance).
There are hundreds of obsolete brown bear subspecies, each with its own name, and
this can become confusing; Hall (1981) lists 86 different types, and even as many
as 90 have been proposed.[28][29] However, recent DNA analysis has identified as
few as five main clades which contain all extant brown bears,[30][31] while a 2017
phylogenetic study revealed nine clades, including one representing polar bears.
[32] As of 2005, 15 extant or recently extinct subspecies were recognized by the
general scientific community.[33][34]
As well as the exact number of overall brown bear subspecies, its precise
relationship to the polar bear also remains in debate. The polar bear is a recent
offshoot of the brown bear. The point at which the polar bear diverged from the
brown bear is unclear, with estimations based on genetics and fossils ranging from
400,000 to 70,000 years ago, but most recent analysis has indicated that the polar
bear split somewhere between 275,000 and 150,000 years ago.[35] Under some
definitions, the brown bear can be construed as the paraspecies for the polar bear.
[36][37][38][39]
DNA analysis shows that, apart from recent human-caused population fragmentation,
[40] brown bears in North America are generally part of a single interconnected
population system, with the exception of the population (or subspecies) in the
Kodiak Archipelago, which has probably been isolated since the end of the last Ice
Age.[41][42] These data demonstrate that U. a. gyas, U. a. horribilis, U. a.
sitkensis and U. a. stikeenensis are not distinct or cohesive groups, and would
more accurately be described as ecotypes. For example, brown bears in any
particular region of the Alaska coast are more closely related to adjacent grizzly
bears than to distant populations of brown bears,[43] the morphological distinction
seemingly driven by brown bears having access to a rich salmon food source, while
grizzly bears live at higher elevation, or further from the coast, where plant
material is the base of the diet. The history of the bears of the Alexander
Archipelago is unusual in that these island populations carry polar bear DNA,
presumably originating from a population of polar bears that was left behind at the
end of the Pleistocene, but have since been connected with adjacent mainland
populations through movement of males, to the point where their nuclear genomes are
now more than 90% of brown bear ancestry.[44]
Brown bears are apparently divided into five different clades, some of which
coexist or co-occur in different regions.[2]
Hybrids
See also: Grizzly–black bear hybrid and Grizzly–polar bear hybrid
Possible grizzly-black bear hybrid in the Yukon Territory, Canada
A grizzly–polar bear hybrid (known either as a pizzly bear or a grolar bear) is a

rare ursid hybrid resulting from a crossbreeding of a brown bear and a polar bear.
It has occurred both in captivity and in the wild. In 2006, the occurrence of this
hybrid in nature was confirmed by testing the DNA of a strange-looking bear that
had been shot in the Canadian Arctic, and seven more hybrids have since been
confirmed in the same region, all descended from a single female polar bear.[45]
Previously, the hybrid had been produced in zoos and was considered a "cryptid" (a
hypothesized animal for which there is no scientific proof of existence in the
wild).
Analyses of the genomes of bears have shown that introgression between species was
widespread during the evolution of the genus Ursus,[46][47][48] including the
introgression of polar bear DNA introduced to brown bears during the Pleistocene.
A bear shot in autumn 1986 in Michigan, US, was thought by some to be a

grizzly/American black bear hybrid, due to its unusually large size and its
proportionately larger braincase and skull. DNA testing was unable to determine
whether it was a large American black bear or a grizzly bear.[49]

Brown Bear

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The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a bear species found across Eurasia and North

Several paleontologists suggest the possibility of two separate brown bear

A grizzly–polar bear hybrid (known either as a pizzly bear or a grolar bear) is a

A bear shot in autumn 1986 in Michigan, US, was thought by some to be a

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