Names: Mike, Thor and Boo
Species: Grizzly bear, a subspecies of brown bear (ursus arctos horribilis)
Age: 17 months
Color: Typically brown, but color can range from blonde to black. Fur can be white-tipped or “grizzled.”
Home: Western North America.
Diet: Omnivore. Grizzlies eat fish and animals of all sizes (even moose, elk and bison), but most of their diet is grass, nuts, fruit, leaves, and roots.
Average life span in the wild: 25 years
Height at maturity: 3-3 ½ feet
Length at maturity: 5-8 feet
Weight at maturity: 800 pounds. The boys currently weigh around 200 pounds each.
Birth: Grizzlies, especially pregnant females, can gain up to three pounds per day as they prepare for hibernation, which can last 5-8 months. Every other year, females give birth to one-pound cubs, often twins, during hibernation in their den. The cubs weigh about 20 pounds when they emerge from the den and remain with their mom for 2-4 years.
Protection status: Threatened
Now you know: Grizzly bears can run 30 miles per hour. They have a better sense of smell than a hound dog and can detect food from miles away. Grizzlies have long claws they use to hunt, dig and climb.
Rescue effort: The orphaned grizzly bear cubs, whose mother was killed by a poacher, were rescued in December from the Anchorage, Alaska area. They had been getting dangerously close to human dwellings. “I even saw a photo of them on somebody’s back porch,” said Betsie Meister, Detroit Zoo assistant curator of mammals. “U.S. Fish and Wildlife was able to get involved and brought them to the Alaska Zoo. They lived at the Alaska Zoo for about a month and in early December I went to Alaska and brought them back here. They went through a quarantine period where they ate a lot, and gained almost 100 pounds (each). They’ve been out in the exhibit since March.”
Next week: A baby chimpanzee named Akira.
- Joe Ballor, Daily Tribune
- Editor’s note: This is the second in a weekly series that takes a close look at the animals of the Detroit Zoo
To see last week’s feature on a Bactrian camel calf named Bulgan, click here.