Throughout history, people have had two very different mental images of the brown bear. One picture is of a cute ,cuddly, friendly animal, like the teddy bear, Fozzie the Bear, and the Berenstain Bears. The other picture is of a wild and ferocious beast that attacks humans and animals alike for food. Both of these views have come from bits of myths, legends, and horror stories past down through generations so the actual facts over the years have become so garbled that most people do not know what the truth is anymore. This, unfortunately, is one of the biggest reasons the brown bear is listed as a threatened species.

For the past hundred years or so, the human population has been growing at an exponential rate, and this has brought humans into more contact with bears in the wild, as we take over more of the land that once belonged to them. In most cases however, the brown bear would rather not have any contact with humans as they prefer remote mountainous habitats near sources of water, but as we build more homes and more people move into their territory, remote regions are becoming few and far between and this has lead to some unfortunate encounters between bears and people. If people had a better understanding of the brown bear, it's habits, and it's life in general, then perhaps the popular misconceptions of the cute teddy bear and the ferocious beast would be put to rest and we would have a better chance at saving these creatures.

Brown bears, despite their outward appearance (or how they have been "trained" to act in circuses) are neither cuddly nor ferocious. A brown bear is a huge beast of a bear, standing up to five feet when on all fours, and up to nine feet tall when standing on two feet. The female brown bear's weighs averages 450 lbs. and males can weigh up to 1,000 lbs. Their extraordinary size alone would make one think that they would be violent creatures, but in actuality they are not. Brown bears are actually more of a solitary animal, wandering widely throughout their habitat in search of food. Bears usually only come together with other bears during mating season, hibernation, or in areas where food is concentrated, such as streams where the bears will fish for salmon or trout.

During hibernation, which usually occurs in October or December through March or April, bears will come together, and sleep in dens inside caves, dug-outs, or dead trees. The bears will emerge during warmer weather to search for food. Brown bears hibernate during the winter months as they are not equipped to deal with the bitter cold of the upper Northeastern U.S., which is one of the areas they are found in. Another thing that often occurs during the hibernation months is that brown bear cubs are born in their mother's den.

The young cubs, usually two or three born every four years, are born between January and March and stay in the dens with their mothers until April, May, or June. The young stay with their mother for 1 ½ to 4 ½ years when they reach maturity. Female brown bears reach sexual maturity between four and ten years old and mate with male bears in the late spring or early summer. Because of their slow reproductive cycle, brown bears do not bounce back from losses in their population easily. Brown bears used to be found all throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia; however, now there are fewer than 1,000 left in the lower 48 U.S. states, and they are mainly concentrated in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. The largest populations of brown bears are still found in Alaska, Canada, and Russia where humans populations are still small.

The big reason people view this bear as an aggressive animal is because the brown bear is a classic omnivore, they will eat almost anything they can catch. Most brown bears eat primarily vegetation, including berries and nuts; however, they also eat moths, rodents, and occasionally large animals such as horses, bison, moose, and small deer, as well as salmon and trout. Having such a wide range of diet, most people fear that a brown bear will intentionally kill a human and eat it for food; however, this rarely ever happens as the brown bears typically have no trouble finding food.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of conservation groups and societies, the views of the brown bear being either a cuddly teddy bear or a violent beast still prevail. Bears are being hunted for the "safety" of humans, the illegal selling of their fur, claws, and teeth, and they are being thrown out of their natural habitats by human settlements. Luckily, the brown bears and their subspecies, the Grizzly Bear and Kodiak have been recognized by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as a threatened species and steps are being taken to bring back this species and to save parts of their habitats as wildlife refuges and national parks.

There are steps we can take though, as individuals to help save these creatures. We can voice our support of the National Wildlife Federation's work to return the grizzly populations to their former range in the Selway-Bitterroot region of central Idaho and northwestern Montana by writing to your local representative in Congress. We can also try to reduce human-bear conflicts out in the wild. Once a brown bear is used to people, often through eating human food left in the woods (trash and litter), they start to lose their wariness of people and conflicts arise. When you are out in the woods, you can try and curb this by making sure that you throw all your trash away in appropriate trash cans and pick up any loose litter you see laying on the forest floor. For more information on how we can help brown bears, you can visit the World Wildlife Fund's website or the National Wildlife Federation's website.