Grizzly bear Facts
The grizzly bear is a mammal, the North American brown bear, a population or subspecies of brown bear that lives in North America.
- Class
- Mammal
- Scientific name
- Ursus arctos horribilis
About the grizzly bear
Scientists call the mainland grizzly Ursus arctos horribilis, and plenty of people shorten its name to just grizzly. The label also stretches to other brown bears. Three living populations sometimes count as grizzlies: the Kodiak bear, the Kamchatka bear and the peninsular grizzly. Two forms that no longer exist, the California grizzly and the Mexican grizzly, also carried the name before they died out.
Not every bear nicknamed grizzly belongs with these North American bears. The Ussuri brown bear of northeast Asia is sometimes called the black grizzly, yet its tie to North American brown bears is no closer than that of any other brown bear subspecies. In short, grizzly describes a group of brown bears more than one tidy species, and the name has spread to cousins on two continents.
Did you know?
- The Kodiak bear's subspecies name is U. a. middendorffi.
- The California grizzly, U. a. californicus, is extinct.
- Another common name for the grizzly bear is the North American brown bear.
Questions about the grizzly bear
Is a grizzly bear a brown bear?
Yes. The grizzly is the North American form of the brown bear, treated as a population or subspecies.
Is a Kodiak bear a grizzly?
The Kodiak bear is a brown bear population that is sometimes identified as a grizzly.
Sources
- Wikidata Q171004, checked October 8, 2026
- Wikipedia: Grizzly bear, checked October 8, 2026
Facts are compiled from these open sources and rewritten in our own words. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.