Grizzly+Bear

=Grizzly Bear= (Ursus arctos horribilis) Nicknames: Silvertip Bear, North American brown bear By: Richard Miller

__**Description**__ Categyory: Mammal, omnivores The Grizzly Bear is a massive animal weighing between 400-1500 pounds. Despite the Grizzly's size, it can reach top speeds up to 35 miles per hour! They can have a variety of fur colors depending on their habitat location, ranging from blond, brown (most frequent color), or black. This bear has a gigantic muscle hump over its shoulders which is used to dig into the ground. __**Eats:**__ A Grizzly Bear's diet consists of both plant and animal (omnivore). They prey on large mammals such as moose, deer, sheep, elk, bison, and caribou. They also eat large fish such as salmon and trout. Even though they eat large animals, plants make up the majority of their diet. They will feed on many types of berries (blackberries, blueberries, cranberries) and small insects in large amounts.

__**Reproduction:**__ Grizzly Bear's have a low reproducion rate becase they do not reach full maturity until they are 5 years old. These animal sexes mate with each other and the female will give birth to about 2 cubs in a litter (the number of offspring produced at lifebirth). After the female gives bith she must wait between 3 or 4 years before reproducing again. The mother will take care of her cubs for 2 years after birth.

__**Problems**__ Climate change has become a problem for Grizzly Bears, the warming temperatures and drought have led to the decline of the whitebark pine, which the bears love to get seeds from. This leads to them searching for more food in locations where humans are where they are vulnerable to being killed before they kill the human. Often hunters will mistake a Grizzly for a black bear which are legal to hunt and will shoot them down. Lastly, the bears environment can be degraded due to human population expansion and building of new roads, homes, etc. __**Solutions**__
 * __Habitat__**
 * Found in Asia, Europe, and North America
 * Historic range: The Grizzly Bear's ancestor originated in Eurasia and traveled to North America around 50,000 yeras ago
 * Current Range: Most bears live in North America and are found in Alaska, southwest Canada, and in the northwestern United States.
 * Grizzly bears are live in a variety of habitats, from dense forests, to subalpine meadows and arctic tundra
 * Do they migrate? The brown bear does not migrate, instead it is forced to hibernate during cold winters and collects enough protein and fat during the summer and fall to prepare for the winter. They stay above ground on the land and can go in water to hunt for fish
 * They have a mutualistic relationship with the fruit plants they eat, allowing the plants to germinate more seeds as the bear eats the plant. In some areas Grizzly Bear's will compete with gray wolves for food but the bear is usally the top animal of the food chain
 * The Grizzly Bear was included in the Endangered Species act in 1975
 * The Defenders of Wildlife organization started a fund in 1999 to initiate preventative measures to ease the relations between humans and bears
 * All national parks have laws to protect bears (Yellowstone removed the Grizzly from its endangered and threatened list in 2007)
 * Some parks will use a barrel trap that relocates bears and keeps them away from buildings near humans
 * The best way to preserve bears is to focus on passing laws that improve the relation between bears and humans and encouraging habitat sustainability

__**References**__ __**No author's names were included**__
 * Defenders.org** __**[]**__
 * Wikipedia** __**[]**__
 * Fish and Wildlife Service.gov** __**[]**__
 * Picture- Animalsgallery** __**[]**__