Distribution and Status of Brown Bears of the World

In this discussion, the term "brown bear" is used for coastal and island populations of Ursus arctos, while the term "grizzly bear" is used for interior and arctic populations. Both terms are often used interchangeably; all populations are members of the same species and the only currently recognized subspecies are the Kodiak brown bear: Ursus arctos middendorffi; and all others: Ursus arctos horribilis. As additional genetic resolution is attained for bears throughout the world, additional subspecies may be delineated.

The following maps and discussions report estimated numbers and distribution. These are based upon the best available research and surveys and are subject to uncertainty: grizzly bears are difficult to find and to census. This data is presented to indicate relative abundance throughout their range and the approximate limits of known distribution. The exact number of bears is not as important as the "effective size" of the population or the amount of good habitat that is available.

North America

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Eurasia

Brown bears are distributed throughout Eurasia with a large 'mainland' population in tundra and taiga forests of Russia extending into neighboring areas of North Korea, Mongolia, and China (Servheen 1990).

The distribution and population sizes in these and other areas are not clearly known. The populations in eastern Russia are estimated at 1800 in Kazakhstan, 8850 in West Siberia, 40,000 in East Siberia, 32,000 in the Russian Far East, 1400 on Sakhalin Island, and 700 in the Kurile Islands (Servheen 1994).

Large areas supporting smaller populations of brown bears are found in central China and in Turkey.

Even smaller population 'islands' are found along the China\Russian border and in parts of Northern India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and possibly Lebanon (Servheen 1990). Habitat in all these areas is declining and there is little or no protection from hunting.

In Russia, since the decline of communism, there has been a tremendous increase in hunting by overseas clients and poaching by local residents. The game management and enforcement infrastructure collapsed, and has been slow to rebuild.

Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Kurile Islands

Sakhalin Island has an estimated population of 1,400 brown bears (Servheen 1990). It is less than 10 km from the mainland of the Russian Far East at the closest point and migrant individuals are probably exchanged occasionally.

Hokkaido is about 40 km from Sakhalin, and may have received no immigrants since the last, Wisconsin, glaciation. Historically, Hokkaido may have supported as many brown bears as Sakhalin in a 77,000 km2 area. Up to 3,000 bears have been reported in recent times (Domico 1988), but Servheen considered the population size as unknown in 1989. The population is much reduced from historic levels and it appears to be fragmented into three subpopulations (Servheen 1990) that are separated from each other by human development.

The Russian Kamchatka Peninsula is estimated to support 12,000 to 14,000 brown bears (Dunishenko 1987) but these populations are rapidly being decimated except in protected areas. Between Hokkaido and Kamchatka, the Kurile Islands form a stepping stone array of smaller intermediate islands. The larger of the Kurile Islands adjacent to either of these 'mainlands' have resident bear populations. These larger islands are separated from each other and from the 'mainlands' by about 25 km. A total of 700 brown bears are estimated on the larger Kurile Islands (Dunishenko 1987). The smaller islands in the center of the chain do not support resident bear populations.

Europe

Brown bears were once found throughout Europe and even inhabited the British Isles until the 10th century (Curry Lindahl 1972, Servheen 1990). Populations in Europe have been severely reduced and habitat has been fragmented by human modification.

Northwestern Russia

Europe has one large contiguous brown bear population in northwestern Russia and Finland. Servheen (1990) reports estimates of 30,000 to 33,000 west of the Ural Mountains. This total includes 4000 in central regions, 4000 in the Ural Mountains, 5000 in the Volga-Vyatka region, 1000 in the Carpathian Mountains, 3000 in the Caucasus Mountains, and 16,000 in northwestern regions. Since the fall of Communism this northwestern population has begun to reconnect with smaller populations of 700 in Sweden and Norway (Swenson 1994). There are about 450 brown bears in Finland contiguous with Russia (Pullainen 1989).

Southwestern Russia, Romania, Bulgaria

A population of 6,000 is estimated in southwestern Russia\Romania (Rosler 1989), and 850 in Bulgaria (Spiridonov and Spassov 1992).

Czechoslovakia, Poland

Greece

Brown bears total about 90 to 170 in two populations in Greece (Mertzanis 1989).

Italy

Two populations are found in Italy of 50 and 10 to 16 animals (Zunino 1992, Boscagli 1987).

About 3 brown bears are known in the Brenta Mountains of Italy bordering Switzerland. These bears are seldom observed and were censused by DNA analysis of hair and scat samples (Kohn et. al. 1995a, 1995b).

Spain, France

Two populations are found in Spain of 93 to 103 and 17 animals (Clevenger et. al. 1987), and about 20 to 30 brown bears are found in smaller subpopulations in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain (Camarra and Parde 1992).

The Former Yugoslavia

The former Yugoslavia was estimated to support 1600 to 2000 brown bears in 1989 (Isakovic 1970, Huber 1992), but the recent war has reduced bear numbers and further fragmented the habitat (Huber 1994).

Albania

Populations of uncertain size are also found in Albania (Servheen 1990).

Many of these populations are likely to go extinct in the near future unless they are carefully managed.

Scandanavia

Citations can be found in the genetic bibliography, under the Related Literature section at the end.

The black-and-white maps on this page have been reprinted with permission by Island Press. They have been published in the book: Metapopulations and Wildlife Conservation, edited by Dale McCullough, copyright 1996, Island Press. This book became available in October 1996. For ordering information, please call Island Press at 1-800-828-1302. The maps appear in Chapter 14: "Brown/Grizzly Bear Metapopulations" by Lance Craighead and Ernie Vyse.

Additional information about Island Press can be found at the Island Press web site. A new book on Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone by John Craighead, Jay Sumner, and John Mitchell is now available.

As the GIS capabilities of CERI improve (with the acquisition of a PowerMac 8500 system through a grant from the CTSP [Conservation Technology Support Program]) we will replace these maps with more precise and hopefully updated versions.