Denise Watts, age 13, of Gastonia, North Carolina, for her question:
Are white and brown bears found in Alaska?
Bears are built to cope with the cold and not so long ago, their ancestors endured the rigors of an ice age. They also competed with early man for shelter in natural caves. Almost always our ancestors were evicted by the bear ancestors. Later, our side grew smarter and turned the tables on the bears. Mile by mile the largest brown bears were driven north to share the snowbound territories of the polar bear.
Only a few very small bears are comfortable in the tropics and semitropics. Our medium sized black bears prefer the cool winter zones of the temperate zones. They come in black or brown, honey colors and creamy beige and most of those that remain find refuge among the lonely western forests and mountains. Our big brown bears prefer the colder regions of the far north. In some parts of Alaska, they share the shores with the famous sea going bear alias the white polar bear.
The untamed and untameable polar bear is lord of the Arctic Sea its shores, its islands and its floating ice floes. In summer, if he wanders inland, he might encounter one of the big brownies though goodness knows how the mighty giants would greet each other. However, such meetings must be rare because large carnivores are never plentiful in any territory, especially in the polar region.
Two big brownies range across the border between Canada and Alaska and a small relative called the blue bear is at home among the far northern glaciers. The silver tipped grizzly also may trespass into polar bear territory.
Some experts classify the two big brownies as varieties of the same species. However, the Alaskan brown bear roams farther afield and tends to be bulkier. The shaggy giant may be eight feet long and tip the scales at 3/4 of a ton. When walking on all fours, his shoulders are 4 1/2 feet high and when standing on his hind legs he can reach to 12 feet. The giant brown Kodiak bear seems to need the ocean breezes and never strays far from the sea. His territory is confined to a peninsula off the shores of British Columbia and Alaska, plus a few nearby islands.
The great grizzly has shaggy brown fur streaked with silvery grey hairs and when this giant approaches, everybody steps aside. In the past, he roamed all the western mountains. Now his remaining refuge is northward into Alaska.
When winter descends on the Arctic, the big brownies and the grizzly go into semi-hibernation. But not the sturdy polar bear. This great white hunter prowls the windswept shores and the ice bound seas all through the long, cold Arctic night.
However, the pregnant female polar bear comes ashore and sleeps under a snow drift, waiting for her twin cubs to arrive, shortly before the Arctic spring.