As American records show, the largest grizzly ever documented was a veritable behemoth.
Still, it doesn’t hold a candle to the brown bear record holder. First things first: When talking about records or anything grizzly, it’s important to know what makes a grizzly versus another grizzly.
As Katmai National Park ranger Cheryl Spencer explains, “All grizzly bears are brown bears.
Grizzlies are simply a subspecies of the brown bear.
The difference is basically where the bear lives.” In short, the proper grizzly is a brown bear that lives in interior areas.
While brown bears, like the behemoths of Katmai Fat Bear Week, “have access to these coastal resources.” All of the above is relevant information when searching the internet for records of the largest grizzly ever, as there are many brown bear records to his name. grizzly bears when they shouldn’t.
Brown bears are generally larger than terrestrial grizzlies.
As a result, you’ll find record-holding grizzlies and browns separately below, all from reputable documentation only. Largest grizzly bears ever recorded (Ursus arctos horribilis) There are only six records of grizzly bears in Montana, as the species has been protected since 1975 (two years after the Endangered Species Act was enacted).
Regardless, Montana provides official historical documentation of their brown bears, which are true land grizzlies.
For these reasons, the state is the most reliable source of record-holding grizzly bears. Largest grizzly bear ever recorded in Montana: 25 9/16 skull size This grizzly was taken from the Missouri River Breaks in 1890 by E.S. Cameron.
The skull of this bear is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
(source) As the top record shows, grizzly bear records are documented by their skull sizes.
While this allows older discoveries to be scored, it does not provide official measurements for the largest grizzly bears.
For this, we consider the third-largest record in Montana, as contenders for second place are up for debate: Third-largest grizzly bear recorded in Montana: Lincoln GrizzlyMontana’s “Lincoln Grizzly” is on permanent display at the Lincoln Ranger District Office.
(source) While tales of 1,200-pound grizzly giants persist, the weight of the Lincoln Grizzly shows a more realistic measurement.
Brown bear species reach much larger sizes, but most are coastal brown bears (which are again larger than grizzlies). the largest record ever recorded is from Alaska.
There, a unique, titanic bear population has grown up through 12,000 years of genetic isolation in the state’s Kodiak region and islands.
And as the record shows, the brown’s skull is 5 inches short of Montana’s largest documented grizzly:
Alaska Brown Bear World Record: 30 12/16 Skull Size This brown bear was taken near Karluk Lake in Kodiak in late May 1952. “The huge bear was shot by Roy R.
With a skull score of 28 4/16, “its skin measured more than 9 feet square, and Alaskan biologists estimate that this gigantic skull is more than 20 years old,” hunter and naturalist John McAdams is quoted as saying in The Big Game Hunt.In kind, Alaska’s the all-time record holder probably stood between 9 and 10 feet on his hind legs in his lifetime.
This is a true giant and easily one of the largest bears – brown or grizzly – that ever lived. To learn more about the difference between a grizzly and a brown, see National Parks Magazine: Katmai Ranger Cheryl Spencer explains the difference between a bear. Brown and Grizzly Bears follow.