Brown bear

The brown bear is one of the biggest land animals with fur. It has a thick brown coat, a round head, and a little hump of strong muscle on its shoulders. Brown bears live across the cool forests, mountains, and open lands of Europe, Asia, and North America.

Brown bears are big, but they are not fussy eaters. Most of their food is plants, like berries, grasses, roots, and nuts. They also scoop fish out of rivers and dig up insects. In the autumn, a bear eats and eats to grow nice and plump before the cold weather arrives.

When winter comes, a brown bear finds a snug den and sleeps for much of the season. This long winter sleep is called hibernation. Mother bears even have their cubs while they rest, and the tiny cubs snuggle up warm and drink their mother’s milk in the den.

A newborn cub is very small, only a few hundred grams. It grows quickly, and by its first summer it is big enough to follow its mother and learn where to find food. Cubs stay close to their mother for two or three years before heading off on their own.

Brown bears mostly like to be alone, and they wander over a wide area, often looking for food in the evening and at night. There are still many brown bears in the wild today. People help them by keeping their forests and mountains wild, and by finding gentle ways to share the land.