When our summer guests see a bear, they immediately want to know its size. They ask, “How much does it weigh?” or, “Is it a big bear or a small bear?” If you see a Kodiak bear ten feet in front of you on a trail, it looks huge, but the same bear walking along the beach a mile away appears small. Guides who have spent years watching bears can easily tell you whether a bear is big, small, or medium-sized, but it’s not easy even for an experienced guide to judge the exact size of a bear from a distance. In this week’s post, I will discuss the indicators a guide uses to judge the relative size of a bear, but first, let me share some facts about the weight of Kodiak bears at different ages as they grow.

Kodiak bears gain weight and add fat in the summer when food is abundant, and then they burn off this fat during hibernation, so their weights vary from fall to spring. Yearling cubs weigh approximately 135 lbs (61.36 kg). When they are two-and one-half-years old, males begin to outgrow the females, and weights vary greatly. Females reach their full adult size at approximately five years when they weigh between 350 and 500 lbs. (159.09 – 227.27 kg). Males continue to grow, gaining about 100 lbs. (45.45 kg) per year until they are eight to ten years old and weigh 500 to 1000 lbs. (227.27 – 454.54 kg). In the wild, an 800 lb. ( 362.87 kg) female would be a huge sow, and a 1500 lb. ( 680.39 kg) male is a maximum-sized Kodiak bear. The largest Kodiak bear on record lived in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and weighed 1670 lbs. (757 kg.).

When you see a bear on a salmon stream or watch him through binoculars, you might not be able to determine how big he is, but you should be able to tell whether he or she is relatively large or small.

Shape:

Look at the bear’s overall shape. Does the bear appear square or rectangular? Young, small bears look square from a distance, while larger Kodiak bears have a rectangular shape. A larger, older boar also appears bulky through the rump and midsection.

Legs:

Are the bear’s legs long or short, and thin or heavy?

Big males have long legs. The front legs on a large male appear heavy and do not taper at the ankles. A young male brown bear also has long legs, but they look lanky, not thick and heavy. A Female, even an old female, has shorter legs, making her body appear closer to the ground. A female’s front legs taper at the ankles.

Head Neck and Shoulders:

Note the size of the ears in relation to the rest of the head. The ears on a large male or female bear appear small compared to the rest of the head, and on a large male, the ears appear wide-set. The ears on a young, small bear look large in comparison to the rest of the head and seem closer together. Now, look at the shape of the head. A large boar has a wide, square face with a thick, heavy muzzle. A sow has a small, narrow head with a tapered muzzle, and a young bear has a long, triangular head.

The massive muscles on the head of a large boar create a furrow down the middle of the forehead, and its muscular shoulders are wider than its head. A female has narrow shoulders the same width as her head, and a young bear has a long, relatively thin neck.

Claws:

Old, big bears of either sex often have distinctive white claws, but a male can be big without being old, so a big boar might have dark claws, and occasionally, a younger, smaller bear has white claws.

Conclusion:

If you’ve never seen a Kodiak bear in the wild, how can you tell if it has small ears, broad shoulders, or tapered ankles? If you see several bears at once, you can study and note the physical differences between big bears and smaller, younger bears, but if you see a single bear walking the beach, these general clues to size might not help you. My husband has been a bear guide for most of his life, and he says the best clues are:

1. The shape: is the bear rectangular (large) or square (small)?
2. Does the bear appear bulky and muscular (large) or does it have long, lanky limbs (small)?
3. Finally, and this point is often overlooked, how does the bear move? Watch the bear awhile. Does he walk or run in jerky movements (small), or are his movements slow and deliberate (large)?

Examine the photos in this post. Can you tell which bears are large and which are small?

Next week, I’ll share some clues on how to differentiate between male and female Kodiak bears. It’s not as easy as you might think, and unlike in the cartoons, females don’t wear bows in their hair.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.