Mary Ann Duchna, age 8, of Albany, New York, for her question:

How much does a Kodiak bear weigh?

A big man may weigh about 200 pounds. One Kodiak bear may weigh as much as eight big men. Several of the shaggy brown giants have been caught and measured. The largest of them weighed 1,650 pounds. This is more than three quarters of a ton. Bears, of course, come in various sizes: Some people think that the bad tempered grizzly is the biggest bear. But he weighs only half as much as the Kodiak bear.

The world has three giant bears. They are the Kodiak, the Alaskan brown bear and the shaggy white polar bear. It is not easy to choose the winner. But most experts think that the Kodiak is the world's biggest bear. He measures nine feet long from his nose to his stubby tail. He stands four and a half feet high at shoulder level. When he stands tall on his back feet, the giant can reach his paws 12 feet above the ground. He lives on faraway Kodiak Island, near Alaska    so the giant bear is never found lurking in the woods around Albany.