Male brown bears grow larger than females. On all four legs, a brown bear stands up to five feet tall. But standing on two legs, as brown bears can do for short periods, a large individual towers up to nine feet tall. Females may weigh more than 450 pounds, but large males reach close to 1,000 pounds. Brown bears grow from six and a half to nine feet long.
Brown bears live in mountains and grassy wilderness in North America, Europe, and Asia.
However, their range has been greatly reduced. The largest populations remain in Alaska, Canada, and Russia. Fewer than 1,000 animals live in the lower 48 U.S. states, mainly around Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. Outside Alaska, the U.S. brown bear population is listed as threatened. Scattered small populations in other areas, such as in Europe, are endangered, with sometimes only a few individuals remaining.