📸 PhotoKodiak Bear ( Ursus arctos middendorffi ) in Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge , Alaska , United States .
Photo: Yathin S Krishnappa · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Brown Bear (Grizzly / Ussuri)
Ursus arctos (Brown Bear (Grizzly / Ussuri) · ヒグマ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 📏 Length 2m — ~1.1× the height of a 1.75 m adult human
- ⚖️ Mass 80kg — ~1.1× the mass of a 70 kg adult human
- ⚡ Speed 55km/h — ~1.5× Usain Bolt's 100 m world-record average speed (37.6 km/h)
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
A large ursid characterized by a massive muscular shoulder hump and 10 cm front claws, reaching a height of 2.8 m when standing on its hind legs.
🌐 Wikipedia Summary ExtractThe brown bear is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on average. The brown bear is a sexually dimorphic species, as adult males are larger and more compactly built than females. The fur ranges in color from cream to reddish to dark brown. It has evolved large hump muscles, unique among bears, and paws up to 21 cm (8.3 in) wide and 36 cm (14 in) long, to effectively dig through dirt. Its teeth are similar to those of other bears and reflect its dietary plasticity.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It possesses all-purpose teeth capable of processing salmon, wild berries, roots, and large ungulates alike, along with explosive leg power to run at 55 km/h.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It holds a physiological mystery of waking up without uremia or osteoporosis after going months without food or water during hibernation.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
It is the Ussuri brown bear that inhabits Baekdusan and the Gaema Plateau in the northern Korean Peninsula and inspired the Dangun myth.
📚 Sources & References
- • Wikipedia “Brown bear”
- • Wikidata Q36341
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • animaldiversity.org — Ursus arctos
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Margot Michaud · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.