|
Post by brobear on May 3, 2017 10:49:32 GMT -5
The Kodiak Bear (Ursus Arctos Middendorffi) This Bear Lives strictly on Kodiak Island. He is the largest of all modern day Bears. Standing at 9 to 10 feet and weighing 900 to 1350 lbs. Yet several have been recorded at over 13 feet and in excess of 1700 lbs. Since man has been moving onto the island and building resorts and airports, creating skepticism and unapproved by the local natives. Most of the Bears have been pushed to the southwest part of the island, known as Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. The area is 8,974 square miles. There were 3 major devastations to the island, which almost destroyed the species. Two earthquakes at sea creating a tsunami (title wave) that hit Kodiak Island. One in 1792 and the other in 1964. Also Novarupta, when it exploded in 1912 sent the ash raining down on the Island. There are now almost 7,000 people in the town of Kodiak alone, which is located on the northeast edge of the Island.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Jan 25, 2018 14:42:53 GMT -5
The Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi), also known as the Kodiak brown bear or the Alaskan grizzly bear, occupies the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in South-Western Alaska. Its name in the Alutiiq language is Taquka-aq. It is the largest subspecies of brown bear and one of the two largest members of the bear family, the other being the polar bear.
Description:
Taxonomy
Taxonomist C.H. Merriam was the first to recognize Kodiak bears as unique and he named the species "Ursus middendorffi" in honor of the celebrated Baltic naturalist Dr. A. Th. von Middendorff. Subsequent taxonomic revisions merged most North American brown bears into a single subspecies (Ursus arctos horribilis), but Kodiak bears are still considered to be a unique subspecies (Ursus arctos middendorffi).
Recent investigations of genetic samples from bears on Kodiak have
shown that they are closely related to brown bears on the Alaska
Peninsula and Kamchatka, Russia.
It appears that Kodiak bears have been genetically isolated since at
least the last ice age (10,000 to 12,000 years ago) and there is very
little genetic diversity within the population. Although the current population is healthy and productive, and has shown no overt adverse signs of inbreeding, it may be more susceptible to new diseases or parasites than other, more diverse brown bear populations.
Hair colors range from blonde to orange (typically females or bears
from southern parts of the archipelago) to dark brown. Cubs often retain
a white “natal ring” around their neck for the first couple years of
life. The Kodiak's color is similar to that of their very close
relative, the Grizzly bear.
Size
Few Kodiak bears have been weighed in the wild, so some of the
weights are estimates. Size range for females is from 225 kg (500 lbs)
to 315 kg (700 lbs) and for males 360 kg (800 lbs) to 635 kg (1400 lbs). Mature males average 480–533 kg (1,058–1,175 lb) over the course of the year, and can weigh up to 680 kg (1500 lbs) at peak times. Females are typically about 20% smaller and 30% lighter than malesand adult sizes are attained when bears are 6 years old. Bears weigh
the least when they emerge from their dens in the spring, and can
increase their weight by 20–30% during late summer and fall. Bears in captivity can sometimes attain weights considerably greater than those of wild bears.
An average adult male measures 244 cm (8 ft 0 in) in length and stands 133 cm (4 ft 4 in) tall at the shoulder. A wild male weighing 750 kg (1,650 lb) had a hindfoot measurement of 46 cm (18 in).
A large male Kodiak bear stands up to 1.5 m (5 ft) tall at the shoulder
when it is standing on all four legs. When standing fully upright on
its hind legs, a large male could reach a height of 3 m (10 ft). The largest verified size for a captive Kodiak bear was for a specimen that lived at the Dakota Zoo
in Bismarck, North Dakota. Nicknamed "Clyde", he weighed 966.9 kg
(2,132 lb) when he died in June 1987 at the age of 22. According to zoo
director Terry Lincoln, Clyde probably weighed close to 1,090 kg
(2,400 lb) a year earlier. He still had a fat layer of 9 inches when he
died. A mass of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) was published for this subspecies, but further details were not specified.
They are the largest brown bear subspecies, and are comparable in size to polar bears.
That makes Kodiak bears and polar bears both the two largest members of
the bear family and the two largest extant terrestrial carnivores.
The standard method of evaluating the size of bears is by measuring their skulls. Most North American hunting organizations and management agencies use calipers to measure the length of the skull (back of sagittal crest on the back of the skull to the front tooth) and the width (maximum width between the zygomatic arches
— “cheek bones”). The total skull size is the sum of these two
measurements. The largest bear ever killed in North America was from
Kodiak Island with a total skull size of 78.1 cm (30.75 in), and 8 of
the top 10 brown bears listed in the Boone and Crockett record book are
from Kodiak.
The average skull size of Kodiak bears that were killed by hunters in
the first five years of the 21st century was 63.8 cm (25.1 in) for boars
and 55.4 cm (21.8 in) for sows.
Distribution and density
Although the term “Kodiak bear” is widely used to include all coastal
Alaska brown bears, the subspecies only occurs on the islands of the
Kodiak Archipelago (Kodiak, Afognak, Shuyak, Raspberry, Uganik, Sitkalidak,
and adjacent islands). The Kodiak bear population was estimated to
include 3,526 bears in 2005, yielding an estimated archipelago-wide
population density of 0.7 bears/square mile (271.2 bears/1000 km²).
During the past decade the population has been slowly increasing.
Kodiak bears reach sexual maturity at age five, but most sows are
over nine years old when they successfully wean their first litter. The
average time between litters is four years. Sows continue to produce
cubs throughout their lives but their productivity diminishes after they
are 20 years old.
Mating season for Kodiak bears is during May and June. They are
serially monogamous (having one partner at a time), staying together
from two days to two weeks. As soon as the egg is fertilized and divides
a few times, it enters a state of suspended animation until autumn when
it finally implants on the uterine wall and begins to grow again. Cubs
are born in the den during January or February.
Weighing less than a pound
|
|
|
Post by tom on Jan 25, 2018 15:13:23 GMT -5
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 17:37:52 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by tom on Aug 27, 2018 17:41:43 GMT -5
My favorite Kodiak Bear of all time is in my Avatar.... Bart the bear or Bart the Movie Star Bear. 1500 lbs when he was in his prime.
Have you ever seen the movie "The Edge" with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins? The Bear in that movie was Bart.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 17:48:16 GMT -5
I seen photos online of Bart the bear. He looked like a tank. I never seen the movie the edge. Im gonna have to check it out.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Aug 27, 2018 17:50:05 GMT -5
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2018 18:21:12 GMT -5
Wow that bear is massive. Clyde is one big boy. He looks just as big as jimbo the bear if not bigger.
|
|
|
Post by King Kodiak on Sept 1, 2018 9:48:27 GMT -5
My favorite Kodiak Bear of all time is in my Avatar.... Bart the bear or Bart the Movie Star Bear. 1500 lbs when he was in his prime. Have you ever seen the movie "The Edge" with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins? The Bear in that movie was Bart. Hello tom. My favorite bear ever is Bart also. 10 feet tall, 1500 lbs. this bear would kill any tiger 9/10 times. Attachments:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 10:27:47 GMT -5
I agree a kodiak bear that size will own and destroy a tiger.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Sept 1, 2018 11:23:44 GMT -5
More important, no tiger, I don't care how big, would ever tangle with a bear the size of Bart. Tigers are aggressive, but not stupid. A little thing called "self preservation"
IMO, A 600 pound barren ground grizzly would pose as much of a threat as a 1500 Kodiak if not more. I've seen videos of Barren ground Grizzlies drive off Polar Bears from a whale carcass. Would this be an exception rather than a rule? Dunno. Barren ground Grizzlies have a rather short fuse.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Sept 1, 2018 11:29:15 GMT -5
Here's the vid I was referring to.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 11:42:19 GMT -5
Yeah those barren ground grizzlies do seem to be really vicious. A tiger trying to fight a bear like dead would be dead in a instance.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Sept 1, 2018 12:45:56 GMT -5
Let me quantify my statement regarding a tiger never attempting to attack a Bear the size of Bart. We've seen photos of adult male Lion literally starving to death (injury or illness?) attack adult buffalo single handily . In fact there's a vid on Youtube showing such an encounter where the Lion in an all out act of desperation trying to kill an adult female Buffalo and lose big time. He failed partly because Buffalo protect their own and she had some help from the herd. I think he would have lost anyway as he was very thin and weak but just goes to show you that hunger can change one's mindset and endure risks you normally wouldn't take.
A Tiger in Siberia under those same conditions may attempt such a desperate act. However, most predators will not intentionally risk a fight with a foe that is much larger and capable of inflicting lethal injury unless as I've stated before they're protecting their young.
|
|
|
Post by King Kodiak on Sept 1, 2018 15:24:32 GMT -5
Well, as we know, the Ussuri brown bear adult males average 582 lbs, and according to russian biologists, siberian tigers dont try to hunt those not even while hibernating (sleeping). Now considering that adult make kodiak bears average about 1000 lbs, and Some even go up to 1500 lbs, then i would think that its almost impossibe for a tiger to even think of hunting a bear as big as a kodiak.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Sept 1, 2018 16:41:13 GMT -5
It would seem highly unlikely as there are much smaller and easier prey for his meals. By the way welcome to the board Kodiak. Glad to have both you and Bruteforce with us. You fellas seem like you know each other? Anyway, you both should introduce yourselves in the member introduction forum, see link below. domainofthebears.proboards.com/thread/3/members-introduction
|
|
|
Post by King Kodiak on Sept 1, 2018 17:43:31 GMT -5
It would seem highly unlikely as there are much smaller and easier prey for his meals. By the way welcome to the board Kodiak. Glad to have both you and Bruteforce with us. You fellas seem like you know each other? Anyway, you both should introduce yourselves in the member introduction forum, see link below. domainofthebears.proboards.com/thread/3/members-introductionThanks buddy. Yeah me and Bruteforce know each other from youtube, we go long way back, we had plenty of wars with tiger fans, even the most fanatic ones. He told me about this site, and am glad because this is the domain of bears baby.
|
|
|
Post by tom on Sept 1, 2018 20:49:33 GMT -5
You must have been outnumbered in those wars as it would seem there are waaay more big cat fanboys than Bear guys.
Do you know who Brobear is on this site? He's pretty much the one who's entered in most of the topics you'll see here. Unfortunately he hasn't visited the site since last April and I can't seem to reach him. He would be tickled pink to see a couple of new Bear guys join the forum.
It's not hard to guess that this place has not had a lot of activity lately other than just recently with you and Bruteforce. I just hope you guys will stick around, maybe we can engage in some topics either already here or anything you guys want to talk about. Hopefully we can elicite Polar to chime in from time to time to....
|
|
|
Post by King Kodiak on Sept 1, 2018 21:10:56 GMT -5
Tom...well i know Brobear from Wildfact, he is Brotherbear there, its the same guy isnt he? I think he is probably the guy who knows more about bears. But why has he left this site? He is still posting at Wildfact. Well yeah, i think 60% of the debaters are tiger fans, 30% are lion fans, and 10 % are bear fans, We probably had the most heated arguments in youtube, i mean those debates were to death you can just imagine. But we were strong trust me. There no way in hell for the tiger fans to win if i have about 20 newspaper accounts of bears either killing or beating tigers in captive Fights, which are always face to face, while there are basically zero of the other way around in captivity. Maybe you seen me, i am “Pablo1111” in Tapatalk, Starfox forum, you know him right? Here is the link to the bears kills tigers thread that we made, you should have seen all this accounts by now, but maybe some you have not. Check it out. www.tapatalk.com/groups/wildanimalwarfare/bear-kills-tigers-t68.html
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2018 21:21:52 GMT -5
Yes Tom me and kodiak are friends from youtube. We had plenty of debates with big cat fanboys. We even went up against the worst of the big cat fanboys. Yeah we were severely outnumbered in some cases too. Me and Kodiak are definitely here to stay.
|
|