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Post by brobear on Apr 13, 2022 8:43:10 GMT -5
Factsheets: Brown bear subspecies #1: Alaskan brown bear (Ursus arctos alascensis) www.bearconservation.org.uk/Alaskan%20brown%20bear%20factsheet%2020150713.pdf Accepted scientific name: Ursus arctos alascensis (Clinton Hart Merriam, 1896); however many authorities recognise only two subspecies of brown bear in North America: the grizzly bear (U.a. horribilis) and the Kodiak bear (U.a. middendorffi). This places these Alaskan bears in the subspecies U.a. Horribilis. In 1918 Clinton Hart Merriam divided the North American brown bears into 86 subspecies based upon small physical differences, mainly relating to skull measurements. Over time this list has been reduced but some experts believe that there is still sufficient evidence to warrant classifying five North American subspecies in addition to the widely accepted grizzly and Kodiak bear subspecies. On our website we include those five subspecies; the Alaskan brown bear (U.a. alascensis) being one of them. However, much of the following information, other than range, is similar or identical to that given on the pages for the Dall (U.a. dalli), Peninsular (U.a. gyas), Sitka (U.a. sitkensis) and Stickeen (U.a. stikeenensis) brown bears. (For links see the web version of this document at www.bearconservation.org.uk/page69.htmlDescription: A large bear, most commonly dark brown in colour but can range from blonde through to black. The often grizzled appearance is caused by the light coloured tips of the long guard hairs over the shoulders and back. The bears have a distinctive hump on the shoulders and a slightly dished profile to the face. The front claws are noticeably long. There is considerable variation in size depending upon the food available. Adult males typically weigh 135 to 390 kg, females 95 to 205 kg. Adults are usually between 90 and 110 cm at the shoulder. Bears from the interior are around two-thirds the size of the coastal and island bears of Alaska.
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horribilis
Parictis
“You have no idea how powerful the truth can be.” - Oliver Queen
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Post by horribilis on Apr 28, 2022 8:43:01 GMT -5
horribilis On the Alaska Peninsula mature males were found to average 357kg during spring. Five fully grown males of at least 9 years averaged 389kg with the heaviest weighing 442kg. That's why I chose to use a bear model that can be ascribed to "spring condition" in the comparison above. Thanks for the info . Can you shed some light on the subspecies topic too? I'm just confused regarding the subspecies of brown bears in North America. Some claim there are only 2 subspecies - middendorffi and horribilis , while others claim there are 3 subspecies - middendorffi , horribilis and gyas.
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Post by theundertaker45 on Apr 28, 2022 11:55:05 GMT -5
horribilisCurrently there are two subspecies; Ursus arctos horribilis and Ursus arctos middendorffi based on phylogenetic research. The trend nowadays is that phylogenetic differences are more interesting to scientists than bare morphological differences upon which many of the old classifications were based upon. I don't know until which point the old classification existed but there were 8 or 9 subspecies of North American brown bears at one point (if we turn time further back we can even read about 86 (!!!) subspecies based on skull differences) and Ursus arctos gyas was one of them.
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horribilis
Parictis
“You have no idea how powerful the truth can be.” - Oliver Queen
Posts: 47
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Post by horribilis on Apr 28, 2022 12:29:01 GMT -5
horribilis Currently there are two subspecies; Ursus arctos horribilis and Ursus arctos middendorffi based on phylogenetic research. The trend nowadays is that phylogenetic differences are more interesting to scientists than bare morphological differences upon which many of the old classifications were based upon. I don't know until which point the old classification existed but there were 8 or 9 subspecies of North American brown bears at one point (if we turn time further back we can even read about 86 (!!!) subspecies based on skull differences) and Ursus arctos gyas was one of them. Thanks for clearing the doubt . So pretty much according to the new classification , the specimens from Alaska (excluding Kodiak archipelago) should come under the subspecies 'Ursus arctos horribilis' right?
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Post by theundertaker45 on Apr 28, 2022 12:45:19 GMT -5
horribilisYes, except for Kodiak bears all others are grizzlies as of now.
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horribilis
Parictis
“You have no idea how powerful the truth can be.” - Oliver Queen
Posts: 47
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Post by horribilis on Apr 28, 2022 13:22:53 GMT -5
theundertaker45Appreciate you for taking the time and responding to my queries .
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Post by brobear on Apr 28, 2022 13:49:29 GMT -5
It wasn't many years ago that Urusus arctos gyas was changed to Ursus arctos horribilis. It was a change that I wasn't thrilled about. If you place a picture of each, an Alaskan peninsula brown bear and an inland grizzly side-by-side, if you know your bears, you will have no trouble in telling one from the other. Not only in size, but in appearance. Hunters ( Boone and Crockett ) list the Coastal brown bears as Kodiak bears while biologists list them as grizzlies. Go figure... But, it's no big deal, it's only categorizing.
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horribilis
Parictis
“You have no idea how powerful the truth can be.” - Oliver Queen
Posts: 47
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Post by horribilis on Apr 29, 2022 4:17:35 GMT -5
Agreed brobear . Generally ,when we look at the morphology of coastal grizzlies , they quite resemble those behemoths from Kodiak archipelago.
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Post by brobear on Apr 29, 2022 4:39:18 GMT -5
Agreed brobear . Generally ,when we look at the morphology of coastal grizzlies , they quite resemble those behemoths from Kodiak archipelago. My theory is, when the ice started melting after the last Ice Age, some "Kodiaks" were stranded on the islands while others were left on the mainland. Those on the mainland ( coastal brown bears ) have been breeding with inland grizzlies for a great many decades now.
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Post by brobear on May 5, 2022 15:37:26 GMT -5
horribilis On the Alaska Peninsula mature males were found to average 357kg during spring. Five fully grown males of at least 9 years averaged 389kg with the heaviest weighing 442kg. That's why I chose to use a bear model that can be ascribed to "spring condition" in the comparison above. Thanks for the info . Can you shed some light on the subspecies topic too? I'm just confused regarding the subspecies of brown bears in North America. Some claim there are only 2 subspecies - middendorffi and horribilis , while others claim there are 3 subspecies - middendorffi , horribilis and gyas. While the 'experts' bunch American brown bears into only 2 or 3 'sub-species', take a look at the American black bear. Most are so similar that it takes a DNA test to tell one from the other. 1- Olympic black bear - Ursus americanus altifrontalis. 2- Dall Island black bear - Ursus americanus pugnax. 3- New Mexico black bear - Ursus americanus amblyceps. 4- California black bear - Ursus americanus californiensis. 5- Cinnamon bear - Ursus americanus cinnamomum. 6- Glacier bear ( blue bear ) - Ursus americanus emmonsii. 7- East Mexican black bear - Ursus americanus eremicus. 8- West Mexican black bear - Ursus americanus machetes. 9- Kermode bear ( spirit bear ) - Ursus americanus kermodei. 10- Kenai black bear - Ursus americanus perniger. 11- Vancouver Island black bear - Ursus americanus vancouveri. 12- Florida black bear - Ursus americanus floridanus. 13- Louisiana black bear - Ursus americanus luteolus. 14- Newfoundland black bear - Ursus americanus hamiltoni. 15- Eastern black bear - Ursus americanus americanus. 16- Haida Gwaii black bear, Queen Charlotte Islands black bear - Ursus americanus carlottae.
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Post by brobear on May 7, 2022 6:46:41 GMT -5
Replies 101 through 109 were moved from 'Size Comparisons (The Grand Arena and others)' - sorry for any inconvenience.
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Post by brobear on Aug 23, 2022 11:45:59 GMT -5
‘Mind blowing’: Grizzly bear DNA maps onto Indigenous language families www.science.org/content/article/mind-blowing-grizzly-bear-dna-maps-indigenous-language-families?fbclid=IwAR0-YARsBW4vN018k_e3GiF7252mBoRAvEFfJMIqnKVCrCj2mZKmxREUi_0 Both bears and humans may have been attracted to the same resource-rich regions The bears and Indigenous humans of coastal British Columbia have more in common than meets the eye. The two have lived side by side for millennia in this densely forested region on the west coast of Canada. But it’s the DNA that really stands out: A new analysis has found that the grizzlies here form three distinct genetic groups, and these groups align closely with the region’s three Indigenous language families. It’s a “mind-blowing” finding that shows how cultural and biological diversity in the region are intertwined, says Jesse Popp, an Indigenous environmental scientist at the University of Guelph who was not involved with the work. The research began purely as a genetics study. Grizzlies had recently begun to colonize islands along the coast of British Columbia, and scientists and Indigenous wildlife managers wanted to know why they were making this unprecedented move. Luckily, in 2011, the region’s five First Nations set up a collaborative “bear working group” to answer exactly that sort of question. Lauren Henson, a conservation scientist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, partnered with working group members from the Nuxalk, Haíɫzaqv, Kitasoo/Xai’xais, Gitga’at, and Wuikinuxv Nations to figure out which mainland grizzlies were most genetically similar to the island ones. Henson used bear hair samples that researchers involved with the working group had collected over the course of 11 years. To get the samples, the team went to remote areas of British Columbia—some of them only accessible via helicopter—and piled up leaves and sticks, covering them with a concoction of dogfish oil or a fish-based slurry. It “smells really, really terrible to us, but is intriguing to bears,” Henson says. The researchers then surrounded this tempting pile with a square of barbed wire, which harmlessly snagged tufts of fur—and the DNA it contains—when bears came to check out the smell. In all, the group collected samples from 147 bears over about 23,500 square kilometers—an area roughly the size of Vermont. Henson and her colleagues then used microsatellite DNA markers—regions of the genome that change frequently compared with other sections—to determine how related the bears were to each other. The scientists found three distinct genetic groups of bears living in the study area, they report this month in Ecology and Society. But they could not find any obvious physical barriers keeping them apart. The boundaries between genetic groupings didn’t correspond to the location of waterways or especially rugged or snow-covered landscapes. It’s possible, Henson says, that the bears remain genetically distinct not because they can’t travel, but because the region is so resource-rich that they haven’t needed to do so to meet their needs. One thing did correlate with the bears’ distribution, however: Indigenous language families. “We were looking at language maps and noticed the striking visual similarity,” Henson says. When the researchers analyzed the genetic interrelatedness of bears both within and outside the area’s three language families, they found that grizzly bears living within a language family’s boundaries were much more genetically similar to one another than to bears living outside them. The findings don’t surprise Jenn Walkus, a Wuikinuxv scientist who co-authored the study. Growing up in a remote community called Rivers Inlet, she saw firsthand that humans and bears have a lot of the same needs in terms of space, food, and other resources. It would make sense, she says, for them to settle in the same areas—ones with a steady supply of salmon, for instance. This historic interrelatedness means Canada should manage key resources with both bears and people in mind, she says. The Wuikinuxv Nation, for example, is looking into reducing its annual salmon harvest to support the bears’ needs, she notes. Lauren Eckert, a conservation scientist at the University of Victoria who was not involved with the study, agrees that the findings could have important implications for managing the area’s bears. It’s “fascinating” and “really shocking” work, she says. The resources that shaped grizzly bear distribution in the region clearly also shaped humans, Eckert says, “which I think reinforces the idea that local knowledge and localized management are really critical.”
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Post by brobear on Aug 23, 2022 11:47:22 GMT -5
DNA analysis reveals three distinct genetic groups of grizzly bears, which align with the boundaries between Indigenous language families (gray lines).L. H. HENSON ET. AL. ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY, 26(3): 7, 2021
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Post by AnimalEnthusiast1789 on Apr 28, 2024 3:19:29 GMT -5
Okay guys, so here's tables my friend Silver And Gold made. From the samples he used we can conclude the average of 469 - 476KG is solid, it has 79 samples. Heavy af. Sure no Tiger or Lion would mess with this mf LMAO!
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