

In preparation for winter torpor, grizzly bears increase their food intake during the summer in order to put on weight. Components of their diet may include seeds, berries, roots, grasses, fungi, deer, elk, fish and insects. What is the diet of the grizzly bear?Īs omnivores, grizzly bears eat a range of plants and animals. They may emerge from torpor periodically to consume small quantities of food. Like other animals that hibernate or go into torpor, bears don’t necessarily go entirely without food during the winter. This means that bears can emerge more easily from their sleep if threatened by predators or to give birth to cubs. The body temperature and metabolic rate of bears doesn’t decrease to the same extent as hibernators such as squirrels during the winter.
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However, there is some debate about whether grizzly bears are true hibernators. Do grizzly bears hibernate?ĭuring the winter, grizzly bears descend into a deep sleep called torpor and can go without food and water for over 100 days. Other subspecies have become extinct such as the Atlas bear in Africa which was hunted by the Romans and used in arenas to fight gladiators and other animals. Outside of North America, the Eurasian brown bear is a subspecies inhabiting parts of Europe and Asia. In North America, the Kodiak bear is another subspecies of brown bear which is found on islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska. they are genetically distinguishable from these other subspecies. Grizzly bears are just one of a number of subspecies of brown bear i.e. What is the difference between grizzly bears and brown bears? Grizzlies are long-living animals, with an average life span of 25 years. They are still beaten in this regard by polar bears, however, with one found weighing over 2,200 pounds. They are among the largest of the bears, with one famously recorded as weighing 1200 pounds and being 10 feet tall. These muscles are used when they dig the earth in search of food and excavate the ground to form winter dens. They have powerful shoulder muscles which appear as a hump between their front shoulders. They are often a dark brown colour but the long guard hairs on their backs have white tips, lending them a ‘grizzled’ appearance. Grizzly Bears are a subspecies of brown bear, found roaming the wilderness of North America.
