050 - Romania

The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It weighs 100 to 700 kg (220-1.500 pounds) and its larger subspecies such as the Kodiak bear match the Polar bear as the largest extant terrestrial carnivore. While the brown bear's range has shrunk, and it has faced local extinctions, it remains listed as a least concern species, with a total population of approximately 200,000. Its principal range countries are Russia, the United States (especially Alaska), Canada, and Finland where it is the national animal. The species primarily feeds on vegetable matter, including roots, and fungi. Fish are a primary source of meat. It also eats small land mammals and occasionally larger mammals, such as deer. Adult brown bears can match wolf packs and large felines, often driving them off their kills.
It is sometimes referred to as the bruin, from Middle English, based on the name of the bear in History of Reynard the Fox, translated by William Caxton, from Middle Dutch bruun or bruyn.
Brown bears have furry coats in shades of blonde, brown, black, or a combination of those colors. The longer outer guard hairs are often tipped with white or silver, giving a "grizzled" appearance. Their tail is 4-5 inches (10-13 cm) long. Like all bears, brown bears are plantigrades and can stand up on their hind legs for extended periods of time. Brown bears have a large hump of muscle over their shoulders which distinguishes them from other species. Brown bears are very powerful, and can break the backs and necks of large prey. The forearms end in massive paws with claws up to 15 cm (6 inches) in length which are mainly used for digging. The claws are not retractable, and have relatively blunt points. Their heads are large and round with a concave facial profile, a characteristic used to distinguish them from other bears. Males are 38-50% larger than females. The normal range of physical dimensions for a brown bear is a head-and-body length of 1,7 to 2,8 m (5,6 to 9,2 feet) and a shoulder height of 90 to 150 cm (35 to 60 inches). The smallest subspecies is the Eurasian Brown Bear whose mature females weigh as little as 90 kg (200 lb).