If the tips of the guard hairs are white, they give the bear a grizzled appearance, hence the term Grizzly bear, applied to the smaller of the two North American subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis . The larger North American subspecies is Ursus arctos middendorffi , the Kodiak bear of the Alaskan islands of Kodiak, Shuyak and Afognak. In North America, they can be found in western Canada, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. In Europe, they live east of the Stanovoi Range in Russia and in extremely fragmented population in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Other small remnant populations can be found in India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey.
Brown bears inhabit dense forests, tundra and lower alpine mountain regions.
Brown bears are omnivorous, eating a mixed diet of grasses, fruits, bulbs and roots, insects, fish and small animals. In a few areas they are known to be predators of larger animals such as caribou and moose. They will also scavenge carrion when available, including whale, walrus and seals that have washed up on shore. Brown bears are solitary animals except for females with cubs. They are territorial with males having larger territories overlapping the smaller territories of several females.