Grizzly bear
Grizzly bears are one of four key large mammals Conservation Northwest works to protect.
Strong, courageous
Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) are intelligent, strong, and courageous. They have lived in North America, including the North Cascades, for thousands of years. Along with mountain caribou, they are animals who survived the last great ice ages on the North American continent.
Persecuted and nearly hunted to extinction in the last two centuries, grizzly bears are doing relatively well upon recovery in Yellowstone National Park. Some grizzly bear populations, however, like the North Cascades grizzly bears, are in desperate trouble and in need of recovery.
Learn what you can do for North Cascades grizzly bears
Conservation Northwest has worked to protect and recover grizzly bears in Washington since our founding in 1989. Without them, the world would be a diminished place.
Who's that? Ursus arctos
- Adult grizzly bears usually live to the age of 20 to 25.
- Females do not reproduce until they are 5 to 6 years old, and give birth to an average of two cubs each breeding cycle. Grizzly bear cubs remain with their mother for 2.5 to 3.5 years.
- Female bears usually require 50 to 300 square miles of range, and males require 200 to 500 square miles. Individual bears’ ranges often overlap, with several bears sharing an area.
- Grizzly bears have good eyesight (about like a human) and excellent senses of hearing and smell (better than that of a dog).
- Grizzly bears are intelligent, curious, and have an excellent memory (particularly regarding food sources).
- Grizzly bears are omnivores with a typical diet of less than 10% fish or meat, and much of that is carrion from winter-killed deer and elk. (In fact, grizzly bears in Yellowstone have benefitted greatly from fall and springtime kills made by wolves.) Grizzly bears in coastal areas are an exception: for these bears, fish (salmon) comprise a larger part of their diet.
- Grizzly summer foods include thistle, cow parsnip, roots, mushrooms, wild berries, spawning fish, and insects including ants.
- The grizzly bear's claws are used mainly for digging roots.
- Grizzlies are incorrectly portrayed as voracious predators. In fact, they are normally reclusive creatures who act aggressively toward humans only in specific situations (usually when they feel startled or threatened by human actions, generally around cubs or food sources).
- In the North Cascades there are estimated to live 5-20 grizzly bears and 6,000 black bears. Grizzly bears differ from black bears by their prominent shoulder hump, longer claws, shorter ears, and a dish-faced profile.
