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The number of bears harvested increased substantially when sea otter populations declined and after the United States acquired Alaska in 1867, [34] bear harvests on Kodiak increased, peaking at as many as 250 bears per year. Commercial fishing activities increased in the late 1880s and canneries proliferated throughout the archipelago.
Considering pinnipeds [73] and polar bears [74] [44] [75] to be marine mammals, the Kodiak bear is the largest [76] [77] of the living land-based mammalian predators. The largest subspecies are the Kodiak bear (U. a. middendorffi) and the questionably-distinct peninsular giant bear or coastal brown bear (U. a. gyas).
The Alaskan Peninsula provides an important habitat for fish, mammals, reptiles, and birds. At the top of the food chain are the bears. Alaska contains about 70% of the total North American brown bear population and the majority of the grizzly bears, as well as black bears and Kodiak bears.
Kodiak Island, hence its name, is another place to view bears. An estimated 3,500 Kodiak grizzly bears inhabit the island, 2,300 of these in the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. [158] [159] The O'Malley River is considered the best place on Kodiak Island to view grizzly bears. [160]
Black bears didn't live in Alaska until the end of the last ice age. [18] Grizzly bear/Kodiak bear Ursus arctos ssp. Alaska contains about 98% of the U.S. brown bear population and 70% of the total North American population. [19] Brown bears can be found throughout the state, with the exclusion of some outlying islands. [19]
Brown bear taxonomy and subspecies classification has been described as "formidable and confusing", with few authorities listing the same set of subspecies. [9] There are hundreds of obsolete brown-bear subspecies. As many as 90 subspecies have been proposed.
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Bear habitats are generally forests, though some species can be found in grassland and savana regions, and the polar bear lives in arctic and aquatic habitats. Most bears are 1.2–2 m (4–7 ft) long, plus a 3–20 cm (1–8 in) tail, though the polar bear is 2.2–2.44 m (7–8 ft) long, and some subspecies of brown bear can be up to 2.8 m (9 ...