Common foods include berries, grasses, sedges, horsetails, cow parsnips, fish, ground squirrels, and roots of many plants. In some parts of Alaska, brown bears have been shown to be capable predators of newborn moose and caribou. They also kill and eat healthy adults of these species. Brown bears have a keen sense of smell, sometimes detecting odors a mile away. Their hearing is also quite good and, contrary to myth, their eyesight is probably equivalent to that of humans.
Brown bears tend to be solitary animals.
Exceptions to this occur where food sources are concentrated, such as fish streams, when females are with their with young, and during the breeding season. Learn more about brown bears from the Alaska Wildlife Notebook Series . All Rights Reserved.