Brown Bear Conservation

Tonight I am commemorating the brown bear,Ursus arctos,the species of bear with the widest distribution,which was just featured by National Geographic in its Photo of the Day feature.In its various subspecies,this large animal is found from North America to Siberia.In North America,there have been some brown bear attacks on humans and livestock.Nonetheless,conservation efforts have been strong and have brought the species back to healthy numbers there.Their situation is worst in Western Europe,where,outside of Scandinavia,they are only few in number in the face of such a heavy human presence.Russia is the brown bear capital of the world,with a population in excess of 100,000.
The beauty of bears is their range of colouration.There are even blond and grizzled brown bears with white-tipped guard hairs,the grizzly bear,in North America.Rare blue and white variants of the black bear,Ursus americanus,also occur and are often mistakenly labeled brown bears.
International in range,the brown bear is a powerful image for the wildlife conservation movement wherever it still survives.