Kamchatka Brown Bear

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Kamchatka Brown Bear
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species: Ursus arctos
Subspecies: U. a. beringianus
Trinomial name
Ursus arctos beringianus

The Kamchatka Brown Bear (Ursus arctos beringianus), also known as the the Far Eastern Brown Bear is a subspecies of the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), native to the Kamchatka Peninsula, Karaginskiy Island, and northward throughout the Koryak Autonomous District. It is also found in the coastal strip west of the Sea of Okhotsk and east of the coastal mountains as far south as Uda bay, on the Shantar Islands and the northern Kuril Islands.

[edit] Description

This subspecies is physically very similar to the Kodiak bears of Alaska, though tending to be darker in colour. It has a broad forehead which is rather steeply elevated over a relatively short muzzle. Though dark furred specimens predominate, fur color can vary from blackish-brown to pale yellow. The claws tend to be dark brown, with light yellow tips, and are up to four inches (100 mm) in length. Head and body length is up to 9 feet (275 cm), tail length 6-1/2 to 8-1/2 inches (16.5 to 21.6 cm), shoulder height 50-53 inches (127 to 135 cm). The largest specimens are located in Kamchatka and on the Shantar islands. As with its Alaskan cousins, the Kamchatka brown bear grows large due of its protein-rich diet of spawning fish in coastal rivers, and from the comparatively mild climate that allows it a shorter hibernation period.[1]

[edit] Notes

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