What's the Difference Between Brown and Black Bears?

Black and brown bears are two different species, and they're easy to tell apart -- from a safe distance, even. Learn how in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/brown-bear.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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,

(00:22):
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,

(00:43):
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

(01:06):
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,

(01:28):
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,

(01:48):
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,

(02:10):
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

(02:32):
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

(02:56):
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

(03:17):
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

(03:39):
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,

(04:03):
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.

(04:23):
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

(04:44):
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

(05:05):
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

(05:27):
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

(05:49):
stuff Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay
four more podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeart
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