Polar Bear - Kodiak Bear comparison

[King Kodiak]

Kodiak bears are more heavily built than polar bears. Here is a skull comparisson, the kodiak has it longer and wider, and probably weights more also. 

The kodiak is the right one.




Kodiak Bear (darker skull): length of skull 48 cm, wide of skull 31 cm, length of upper canine tooth 5,6 cm, length of lower canine tooth 4,6 cm.

Polar Bear: length of skull 45,5 cm, wide of skull 29 cm, length of upper canine tooth 5,5 cm, length of lower canine tooth 4,6 cm.

Post 72
wildfact.com/forum/topic-the-king-of-the-bears-comparison-between-the-polar-bear-and-the-brown-bear&highlight=The+king+of+the+bears

[brobear]

Apr 18, 2017 18:20:12 GMT -5 brobear said:

A polar bear can run twenty-five miles per hour. That is faster than a human can run. Polar bears can run down some caribou. Grizzly bears look slow. But don't be fooled. Grizzly bears cab easily outrun a human. They are fast!

Did you know? A grizzly is faster on land. A polar bear is probably faster on ice.

Only an expert osteologist, a bone scientist, can tell their bones apart.

Considering running speed............>>>>>>> grizzly from 30 to 35 mph.
Kodiak.... ? 

[King Kodiak]

Basically the same as grizzly bears, between 35-40 mph at short distances.

It Depends on How You Define Average
The Kodiak bear may look like a lumbering giant, but his large physique is mostly muscle. The hump on his back, beneath the neck, is solid muscle the bear uses for digging. It also provides him with the power to use his paws as a weapon. These bears have a flat-footed, pigeon-toed walk; however, when one picks up pace, he can cover short distances at speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour. An average walking pace is about 3 miles per hour, which is very similar to the average human walking pace. When he breaks into a jog, he doubles his speed to 6 miles per hour.

animals.mom.me/average-land-speed-kodiak-bear-7133.html

[brobear]

Comparison between a mature male polar bear and a mature male Kodiak bear, with both being typical specimens of their species/subspecies, you would see no obvious difference. Once you pull out the measuring tape and bear-scales, then you learn that the polar bear has some size advantage. This is very similar to seeing lions and tigers together. The size difference is simply unnoticeable to the naked eye. In both cases, the size difference would not be a game changer should there be an unfriendly encounter.

[Deleted]

I personally never knew the kodiak bear actually has a darker skill.

[King Kodiak]

Kodiak-polar-american black bear skulls.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2018 12:06:03 GMT -5 tom said:

How bout this big fella. 2200 lbs.

Here is more detail:






Credited to GuateGojira from Wildfact.

wildfact.com/forum/topic-the-king-of-the-bears-comparison-between-the-polar-bear-and-the-brown-bear

[Deleted]

Credited to GuateGojira from Wildfact again.


wildfact.com/forum/topic-the-king-of-the-bears-comparison-between-the-polar-bear-and-the-brown-bear?page=2

[Deleted]

Just something i came across while surfing the Internet





"A sagittal crest is a ridge of bone that runs down the length of the top of a skull. This feature is associated with strong jaw muscles, the bigger the crest, the stronger the jaws! In this picture you can see that the polar bear has a very large sagittal crest compared to a black bear. Can you guess which one of these bears uses its jaws to kill seals and which one eats a lot of berries?
"
www.facebook.com/Royal.Saskatchewan.Museum/posts/a-sagittal-crest-is-a-ridge-of-bone-that-runs-down-the-length-of-the-top-of-a-sk/1018175681541991/

[tom]

Nice comparison Verdugo. Maybe it's just the angle in the picture, but the Kodiak Bear has a sagittal crest that appears to be not so long even when compared to the Grizzly?

The other question i have is whether or not all of these skulls came from adults and more importantly adult males?

[tom]

Ok now that I've looked at the pics from Kodiaks reply #80 (bottom pic) I see that the sagittal crest on the Kodiak is indeed longer than it appears in the photos above so it would appear the angle of the photo is hiding it a bit.

[Deleted]

Aug 27, 2019 16:17:00 GMT -5 tom said:

The other question is i have is whether or not all of these skulls came from adults and more importantly adult males?

That is a very good question actually Tom. The facebook post (that i linked) does not provide any details other than what i have posted here. But you are right, Bears skull morphologies depend a lot on factors such as sexes, ages, food availability (when the animals were alive), and genetics of that animal (not all Bears are equal of course). It's not uncommon for Carnivorans (especially in males) to develop larger, more defined sagittal crest as they become more matured. Judging by its size and how impressive (robust) it looks, the Polar bear's skull most likely comes from a large, wild, male specimen. Judging by its size and just how high its domed forehead is, the Kodiak skull most likely also comes from an adult male. But like i said above there many factors that could affect the skull morphologies. For instance, the Kodiak, even though is an adult, may still be younger than the Polar bear (thus has not developed its crest to the extend seen in the Polar); or it may have less access to food when it was alive; genetics of that particular specimen would also play a role too (not all Kodiak are copy&paste from one another). Or like you said, it's probably just an optical illusion because of the angle.

It's necessary to keep in mind that skull morphologies tend to vary quite a lot so if you see a picture of a skull of an individual, it does not mean that that individual is representative of the entire species. To demonstrate what i mean:

Here is a skull of a Polar bear

Judging by its size, it's probably an adult (an adult male even). However, the skull is rather narrow in its zygomatic width and as you can see, the crest is not that well developed.

On the other hand, this is also a Polar bear's skull:

I mean its zygomatic width is almost the same as its length and just look at that very well-developed sagittal crest!

You get what i mean here? Honestly, i have seen Black bear's skull that it's just as impressive as those of Grizzlies though i am unable to find it now.

[tom]

We'll the comparisons do point out some differences in each specie's skull, regardless of sagittal crest length, that is for sure.

[OldGreenGrolar]

Personally this 12 ft tall polar bear (above) is skin stretched judging by the kodiak bear picture below and the info (below) from Brutestrength (who in turn got it from Wildfact):

The hide measured 11 feet, 3 inches. The pads of his hind feet measured 15 1/4 inches in length, the neck of the carcass after the hide was removed measured 52 inches around. The skull measured 17 3/8 x 11 5/8, and the body was 8'6" from nose to tail. The trophy was mounted by taxidermist Coleman Jonas in 1935, the bear mount spent many years on display in Chicago's Marshall Fields Department Store. Book Kodiak Island and its Bears  wildfact.com/forum/topic-bear-anatomy?pid=93105#pid93105



Credited to Brutestrength


domainofthebears.proboards.com/thread/327/brown-bears?page=9&scrollTo=20663

May i know your opinions brobear ?

[brobear]

Apr 19, 2017 14:10:50 GMT -5 brobear said:

The record wild polar bear on record weighed 2,210 pounds ( 1,002 kg ).
The largest wild grizzly on record weighed 1,656 pounds ( 751 kg ).

*Note that polar bears in the wild are bigger and heavier than those kept in captivity due to their diet of whale and seal blubber. 
 

Just how big can a Kodiak bear grow to be? I believe that 1500 pounds is probably a normal maximum seldom reached. Bart the Bear and a few other captive Kodiaks have reached this peak. The heaviest recorded wild Kodiak weighed 1656 pounds ( 751 kg ). However, as I would estimate maybe one out of perhaps a thousand male 10+ year old Kodiaks are ever actually weighed, I would not say that this was the biggest ever Kodiak bear living in the wild.
As for captive bears, there was a 15 year old Kodiak in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Park that was weighed at 1670 pounds ( 757 kg ). Even bigger were Goliath which was reportedly weighed in 1983 at 2000 pounds and Clyde which was reportedly weighed in 1987 at 2136 pounds.
shaggygod.proboards.com/board/66/kodiak-brown-bear-coastal 
 
*Note:  According to zoo director Terry Lincoln, Clyde probably weighed close to 2400 lbs a year earlier He still had a fat layer of 9 inches when he died.

As said several times here at the Domain, no zoo feeds their bears a better weight-gaining diet that what a polar consumes in the wild - blubber. This is why wild polar bears are heavier than captured polar bears. But there have been captured brown bears heavier than their arctic cousins. The record polar bear's height of 11 feet and 1 inch is unverified because the bear was mounted in an unnatural pose. Wild polar bears are the world's biggest bears. Brown bears have the potential of being just as big if the food resources are available and permits him not to hibernate. Also, Guate's post says that polar bears are the world's smartest bears. Definitely unverified. 

[King Kodiak]

Lars: i think you made a typo, that is a kodiak bear in the picture above.

[brobear]

The record wild polar bear on record weighed 2,210 pounds ( 1,002 kg ).
The largest wild grizzly on record weighed 1,656 pounds ( 751 kg ).

The difference is 554 pounds. Considering that the polar bear likely carried several hundred pounds of fat more than the brown bear; the true size difference in minimal.  
 

[OldGreenGrolar]

Nov 3, 2019 6:38:43 GMT -5 King Kodiak said:

Lars: i think you made a typo, that is a kodiak bear in the picture above.

I edited my post and included the 2200 pound polar bear's picture. My internet was playing up a while ago sorry guys. I still think the polar bear is skin stretched although it should be a bit taller than the bulkier kodiak bear (as Brobear pointed out in the post below).

[OldGreenGrolar]

Nov 3, 2019 6:50:37 GMT -5 brobear said:

The record wild polar bear on record weighed 2,210 pounds ( 1,002 kg ).
The largest wild grizzly on record weighed 1,656 pounds ( 751 kg ).

The difference is 554 pounds. Considering that the polar bear likely carried several hundred pounds of fat more than the brown bear; the true size difference in minimal.  
 

The polar bear looks slightly taller but the kodiak looks bulkier. That picture comparison seems to confirm your opinion and thanks for posting that. Polar bears carry more fat and have much thicker fur because they live in colder areas.


P/S: I doubt an exceptional 2200 pound polar bear will be taller than an 1760 pound polar bear (which is estimated at its weight due to being too heavy to be lifted by a helicopter).

[brobear]

www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/bear.html

It is a close call, but the polar bear is generally considered the largest bear on Earth. A close second is the brown bear, specifically the Kodiak bear. The Kodiak is a subspecies of the brown bear native to Alaska.

The consensus among experts is that the polar bear is the largest, but some believe the Kodiak bear to be larger. Part of the dissension comes from the vagueness of the word "largest." The answer really depends on how "largest" is defined - Heaviest? Longest? Largest ever recorded?

The average polar bear is longer, taller, and heavier than the average Kodiak bear. The record size polar bear was also larger in the same respect. The polar bear is more streamlined in build as an adaptation to being the world's most aquatic living bear. The Kodiak bear has a more massive skull, and is more robust in the forequarters having a much thicker neck and is much more powerful in it's shoulders.