Size

[King Kodiak]

Reply #297: great find there Taker. If i remember correcly, that bear should be the second largest (on record) that we know of from the wild. 

[tom]

Does anyone know who the largest Grizzly ever weighed in Yellowstone park was and how long ago. I did a quick search and didn't come up with much. I don't know exactly how long they have been weighing Bears in the park, but was just curioius. Bear 791 in the other thread weighed in the high 600's.

UPDATE: apnews.com/article/89c940cdd06043b38593bce97ad9172c#:~:text=The%20male%20was%20the%20biggest,was%20well%20over%20600%20pounds.

This Bear (Big Joe as he was called) was estimated at over 600 lbs and could have feasibly weighed 800 or more pre hibernation?? It doesn't sound like he was officially weighed though.

[King Kodiak]

Does anyone know who the largest Grizzly ever weighed in Yellowstone park was and how long ago. 

According to brobear, It was a grizzly called "Fatboy", he weighted around 1000 lbs.

[tom]

Nov 9, 2020 18:20:48 GMT -5 King Kodiak said:

Does anyone know who the largest Grizzly ever weighed in Yellowstone park was and how long ago. 

According to brobear, It was a grizzly called "Fatboy", he weighted around 1000 lbs.

Was that fall weight? Is there data on him somewhere?

[King Kodiak]

Nov 9, 2020 18:22:08 GMT -5 tom said:

Nov 9, 2020 18:20:48 GMT -5 King Kodiak said:

According to brobear, It was a grizzly called "Fatboy", he weighted around 1000 lbs.

Was that fall weight? Is there data on him somewhere?

To be honest, i never seen a source for that, i just looked for a second and found nothing. But i know brobear talked about "Fatboy" several times. Maybe he knows.

[brobear]

Fatboy is mentioned in several of the books I've read; but his weight is evidently unconfirmed. 
 
*Page #2: Reply #39: The Grizzly Almanac by Robert H. Busch: The largest Yellowstone National Park grizzly was an 1,120 pound ( 509 kg ) fatso that gained his pear-shaped figure after a steady diet of human garbage at dumps. Most Yellowstone males are 215 to 715 pounds ( 98 to 325 kg ); females are 200 to450 pounds ( 91 to 205 kg ). 
 
Reply #38: All weights were taken in June or July. ( In some accounts referring to the Craighead research there are reports of a 1,120 pound ( or 500 kg ) grizzly bear. I have not been able to find such a bear in any of their scientific articles.

[King Kodiak]

Fatboy is mentioned in several of the books I've read; but his weight is evidently unconfirmed. 

So Fatboy was mentioned in the book "The grizzly almanac" which is of the gene nature. So Fatboy is not found under any scientific articles, so it looks like its not verified. The author seems very reliable to me though:

About the author (2004)

Robert H. Busch is the author of eight books on natural history, including The Wolf Almanac, a best-selling selection of the Natural Science Book Club, and The Cougar Almanac. His writing has appeared in Nature Canada, Wildlife Conservation, Discovery, Country Journal, Grolier 1998 Anthology of Best Science Writing, and many others.


books.google.com/books?id=BFMpvgAACAAJ&dq=The+Grizzly+Almanac+by+Robert+H.+Busch:&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMqefitPfsAhWR2FkKHSbJD80Q6AEwAHoECAIQAg

[brobear]

I would say that Fatso was real and did indeed carry a weight of 1,120 pounds. As you say, Kodiak, Robert H. Busch was not a fiction writer. I would add though that Fatso was not a bear worthy of bragging rights. As a 'dumpster diver', Fatso was probably as obese as a grizzly can possibly be.

[King Kodiak]

I would add though that Fatso was not a bear worthy of bragging rights. As a 'dumpster diver', Fatso was probably as obese as a grizzly can possibly be.

Maybe. But remember that bears barely suffer from obesity, they dont have health problems because of weight, or very rarely:

domainofthebears.proboards.com/thread/977/fat-bear


domainofthebears.proboards.com/thread/980/animal-weights-compared-human?page=1

[brobear]

Nov 10, 2020 2:52:37 GMT -5 King Kodiak said:

I would add though that Fatso was not a bear worthy of bragging rights. As a 'dumpster diver', Fatso was probably as obese as a grizzly can possibly be.

Maybe. But remember that bears barely suffer from obesity, they dont have health problems because of weight, or very rarely.

This is true, but my point is, there may have been bigger stronger bears in Yellowstone, with less fat - caused from consuming 'human junk foods'. 

[King Kodiak]

This is true, but my point is, there may have been bigger stronger bears in Yellowstone, with less fat - caused from consuming 'human junk foods'. 

Oh ok, i see what you mean. Yeah that should be true.

[brobear]

GOLIATH-SECOND LARGEST KODIAK BEAR ON RECORD-2000 LBS

[brobear]

www.bismarckcafe.com/blogs/wiki/clyde-the-bear
...Clyde the kodiak bear from the Dakota zoo, according to the zoo director, weighted about 2400 lbs 2 years before his death.

[brobear]

From "California Grizzly"...

"A town gets a name
Valley Center was the site of the capture of the largest California Grizzly Bear in history. In 1866, a grizzly weighing 2,200 pounds was killed in the area. Although the town had been settled in 1845 and homesteaded in 1862, it had no formal name until the famous 1866 bear incident. The notoriety surrounding the event gave Valley Center its original name of Bear Valley. The name was subsequently changed to Valley in 1874, to Valley Centre in 1878 and, finally, to Valley Center in 1887.

The legend of the great bear
A giant grizzly bear, which had been threatening both man and cattle, was killed near the home of James and Ada Lovett in 1866. Lovett and several men dragged the giant animal to where it could be loaded onto a wagon and drove eight miles to the Vineyard Ranch of Col. A.E. Maxcy who had been offering a reward for the capture of the bear. The bear was hoisted onto Maxcy’s cattle scales where it weighed 2,200 pounds and was declared to be the largest grizzly bear ever killed in California.

The bear was skinned and cut up, with more than one pound of lead found inside its head. Col. Maxcy kept the skull of the bear as a souvenir until around 1900 when it was reportedly sold to a museum in the south, believed to be either Georgia or Tennessee. Efforts in recent years to locate the skull have been unsuccessful.

An eyewitness account
The killing of the grizzly was witnessed in 1866 by the 6-year-old daughter of James and Ada Lovett. Some six decades later, in 1932 at age 72, Catherine E. Lovett Smith returned to the family homestead for a visit and provided an oral history of the event to the owner of the ranch, Edward P. Haskell. Mr. Haskell prepared a 3-page documentation of his interview with Catherine and provided a copy for the local history archives at Valley Center Library. His report is titled, How Bear Valley Got Its Name.

A peach grower, Haskell created a peach label showing an old oak tree on his property where the bear reportedly attempted the attack. The tree still stands off Guejito Road as does the Lovett home.
                                                                

[brobear]

Replies #311 and #312 tell about 2 Kodiak bears who surpassed 2,000 ( a full-ton ). Look at the pictures; these were not obese bears. Reply #313 tells of a historical California grizzly reportedly weighing in excess of a full-ton.
We also have the Steppe bear, Ursus priscus (GOLDFUSS, 1818) which the experts claim ( according to the well preserved fossils ) might have been a Pleistocene brown bear or possibly a Holocene bear, Ursus arctos arctos - our still living European brown bear.
Dimensions: length - 2.9 m, height - 140-160 сm, weight - 300-1000 kg (660-2,200 lbs).

[King Kodiak]

We also have the Steppe bear, Ursus priscus (GOLDFUSS, 1818) which the experts claim ( according to the well preserved fossils ) might have been a Pleistocene brown bear

"Might" have been a Pleistocene brown bear? It is officially a brown bear, Ursus arctos Priscus:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618218308437

[brobear]

Quote: "U. a. “priscus” cannot be distinguished genetically, but it differs metrically and morphologically."

So basically, U.a.arctos and U.a.priscus are probably the same lineage of brown bear. After his Pleistocene diet heavy on meat, and in the Holocene leaning more towards vegetation, there came a gradual dental change.

Still the fact remains, this bear, when he was mostly carnivorous ( so as to reduce competition with the vegetarian cave bear ) could weigh 2,000+ pounds ( a full-ton ). The point I'm attempting to make in posts #311 thru #314.

[King Kodiak]

Still the fact remains, this bear, when he was mostly carnivorous ( so as to reduce competition with the vegetarian cave bear ) could weigh 2,000+ pounds ( a full-ton ). The point I'm attempting to make in posts #311 thru #314.

Yes, and great point you are making. All those famous bears mentioned, "Goliath", "Clyde",  and that California grizzly specimen, all three weighted more than one ton and were perfectly healthy specimens. Felids can only dream of that.

[King Kodiak]

Since this is the "size" thread, i want to make something clear. There are a few feline fanboys that say "bears are just fat, weight wont matter", yet when they debate against each other in "tiger vs lion", they argue day and night about which cat is a little larger, "tigers are the largest cats!!", "no! Lions and tigers are equal!". Also, they argue for how large was the largest confirmed tiger/lion, "a tiger weighted 400 kg in the wild!, "but a lion weighted 420 kg no stomach content!!"

What does this mean guys? That these feline fans love weight, thus making them a bunch of hypocrites. They criticize the bear's weight, yet they argue for weight for their favorite animal, so funny. In reality they wish felines weight as much as bears. 

[tom]

Reply#311

It's hard for me to look at that picture of Goliath in what appears to be a small tiny enclosure. What a sad life IMO....