Big Bear!

Cross J

New member
I received an email today telling of a very large grizzly killed in Alaska. The bear was over 1600 lbs and contained the contents of two humans. Has anyone heard this story or know if it is true?
 
Thought I would try to clear the air here on some of the bear nomenclature used to describe the Alaska Brown Bear. If you look in record books for Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young you will find two categories and that is the Alaskan Brown Bear and the Grizzly or interior bear. Originally the boundry for a Grizzly bear was a imaginary line extending 75 miles inland from the coast of Alaska but was later changed to a line running approximately at 62 degrees North. Since the Brown or Coastal Bear has the high protien salmon diet they grow to a much larger size than the interior Brown or Grizzly Bear and the two categories were established to differentiate them. There is no species of Kodiak Brown Bear it is just an Alaskan Brown or Coastal Bear that happens to live on Kodiak Island. The term is frequently used in error to describe an Alaskan Brown Bear. I live on the Alaska Peninsula directly across from the southern tip of Kodiak Island and there are several Coastal Brown Bears in Boone & Crockett from my area that are as large or larger than some taken on Kodiak Island. The latest B&C Record Book I have still shows the record taken on Kodiak Island by Roy Lindsley in 1952 and it is owned by the LA County Museum. Kodiak Island has 8 of the top 10 in the book but as you go down the list of records the Alaska Peninsula is well represented.
I have also spent some time in Churchill and York Factory Manitoba with the big white growlers but can not speculate as to which is the largest. The current world record in Boone and Crockett for Polar Bear is not as large as the record for the Alaska Brown Bear but keep in mind the scoring is done on a dried skull because the measuring of hide or body allowed to much creative interpretation. The record books may only reflect that the Alaska Brown Bear has a bigger head not overall size.
 
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