Grizzly Bear

Fascinating facts about the Grizzly Bear

• Grizzly bears can smell food from over 29 kilometres away, giving them a sense of smell seven times stronger than a bloodhound.
• During hyperphagia in autumn, a grizzly may eat up to 20,000 calories per day to build fat reserves for hibernation.
• Their humped shoulder muscles power their forearms to dig faster than a human with a shovel.
• Grizzly mothers are among the most devoted parents in the animal kingdom, nursing cubs for up to three years.
• Where salmon runs are intact, grizzlies carry fish carcasses deep into forests, fertilising trees with marine nutrients up to 1 kilometre from the river.

At a glance

About the Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear is the living embodiment of wild North America: massive, powerful, and deeply woven into the ecosystems it moves through. Each autumn, grizzlies become eating machines, consuming up to 20,000 calories a day before retreating to dens where they will give birth while still sleeping. Their presence in a river system signals abundance, their salmon-dragging enriching forests with nutrients from the sea.

Grizzly Bear photographed on Feravox

Discover more wildlife