Classroom lesson · Wildlife · 🇺🇸 United States

The grizzly bear

A giant brown bear that can run faster than an Olympic sprinter

A grizzly bear walking through golden grass

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The grizzly bear is a kind of brown bear that lives in the wild parts of North America - especially in the forests and mountains of Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. A grown-up grizzly can weigh up to 400 kg, which is about the weight of five fully-grown people. They get their name from their fur, which can look 'grizzled' - silver-tipped, like an old beard.

Tell me more

Grizzlies are surprisingly fast for such big animals. They can run at around 50 km/h, faster than the fastest human sprinter. They are also brilliant swimmers and can climb trees when they're young (older bears get too heavy for the branches).

Grizzlies eat almost anything. They love berries, roots, nuts, fish, and small animals. In late summer, when salmon swim up rivers to lay eggs, grizzlies gather at waterfalls to scoop them out of the air as the fish jump. A single bear can eat 30 fish in a day at this time of year.

Before winter, grizzlies eat as much as they can - up to 40 kilograms of food a day - to build up a thick layer of fat. Then they find a den, often a cave or a hole they dig themselves, and sleep for around five months. Their heart slows right down. Mother bears sometimes give birth during this winter sleep, and the babies stay tucked into her warm fur for months.

Baby grizzlies are tiny when they're born - about the size of a squirrel. By the time they come out of the den in spring, they are about the size of a small dog. They stay with their mother for two to three years, learning to find food, swim and climb. They watch her closely - she is their teacher.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

01Why might it be useful for a bear to sleep through the whole winter?
02Baby grizzlies start tiny and grow huge. What other animals change a lot as they grow?
03Grizzlies eat fish, berries, roots and nuts. What do you eat that grew or lived nearby?

Try this

Classroom activity

Track 'bear food' for a week. Each day, write down one food from each food type a grizzly eats: a berry, a nut, a fish, a leaf. By Friday, see how many different foods the class has eaten between you - a grizzly's menu is more varied than yours might think.

More about United States

Other things that make United States special

Want your class to meet United States?

Pick United Stateswhen you register and we’ll show you the time-zone feasibility.

Register your classroom