Who is the Kodiak Bear?

The Kodiak bear is a unique subspecies of the Brown Bear, or Grizzly Bear. They are the largest of the bears, comparable in size to polar bears. They are unique in that they are isolated from all other bears by their location on the Kodiak Archipelago, a group of 30 islands stretching 177 miles, located 250 miles south of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska.

The size of the Kodiak bear can be up to 1500 pounds and 10 feet tall when standing on their back legs. The female bears are generally about 25% smaller than the males, in size and weight. The Kodiak population is estimated to be around 3,500 bears. The oldest known Kodiak bear was a female that lived to 34 years old.

The Kodiak bears diet, consists of grass, plants, berries, fish and any other animals that they can find. They spend the majority of their time eating plants and grasses. Fish is a large part of their diet in the late summer and fall when they are fattening up for the winter. If they do eat other mammals, they are mostly found dead or left by other carnivores. They will rarely take the time or expend the energy to catch and kill them on their own. In some situations where food is scarce they can be nocturnal, but they are normally active during the day.

The Kodiak Bears mating season is from May to June. They are monogamous while they are mating for the season, but they don't stay together after mating is done. Once the egg is fertilized it sits in a state of waiting until the female goes into their winter den, to hibernate in late October, before it starts to grow. The cubs are born in January or February, normally 2 to 3 cubs, weighing about 1 pound each. They suckle on the mother while she sleeps. They grow to 15 to 20 pounds by the time they leave the den in May or June. The cubs stay with the mother until they are 3 years old. About 25% survive to 3 years old. Most that die are killed by other males. The cubs become sexually mature when they reach age 5. From age 5 the females have cubs every 3 to 4 years for the rest of their life.

From Kodiak Bear observations over the past several decades scientists have found the bears have a sense of sight similar to humans, a sense of hearing similar to a dog, a sense of smell 4 times better than a dog, and an intelligence level about that of the average dog. They have seen Kodiak Bears coloring ranging from blonde, to dark brown. They have also seen the Kodiak Bear population over the past several decades rise slightly. As to endangerment, they are listed as low risk, least concern. It is also a mystery to scientists how the bears can sleep for 8 months with no food or drink, and wake up with little bone mass or muscle tone loss. They lose a substantial amount of weight, but it's almost all fat.

The Kodiak Bear will try to avoid humans most of the time. The exceptions are if they are surprised, or if they feel their cubs are threatened. There has been only 1 human killed by a Kodiak Bear in the last 75 years.

Kodiak Bear Fact sheet State of Alaska
wildlife Alaska