Bears - Sounds Wild
Bear Size

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Bear size

In the summer of 2016, biologists captured 25 black bears in Prince William Sound, and 20 bears were equipped with GPS collars. Alaska Fish and game and the U.S. Forest Service are partners in the project. Monitoring the bears' movements over the course of three years will provide valuable insights into how bears in Prince William Sound use their habitat, what preferences they have for beaches, alpine and streamside habitats, and how males and females use the habitat differently.

Researcher Milo Burcham said the bears were smaller in general than he expected. Not because they were unusual, but because people tend to overestimate the size of bears.

"It's a human tendency to think bears are way bigger than they are," he said. "Black bears are smaller than people think - most black bears weigh about as much as an adult man."

Like humans, males tend to be heavier than females. The average size of the Prince William Sound black bears was 185 pounds for the females and 193 pounds for the males. Studies in California showed an even larger gender difference; 190 pounds for males and about 130 pounds for females. The energetic demands of having cubs, nursing and caring for cubs is a big reason why females tend to be smaller.

Seasonal variation is very pronounced: a bear fattened up and ready for hibernation weighs about 30 percent more than it does in spring when it emerges from the den. Coastal black bears with access to salmon tend to be larger than other bears - black bears on Kuiu Island in southeast Alaska averaged about 250 pounds.