Brown Bears can vary in their coloring from a light mocha to a deep nearly black color. Adult male Katmai coastal brown bears can reach up to 1,700 pounds with females generally weighing less.  Brown bears have a wide range of habitats including dense forests, sub-alpine mountain areas, and tundra. Female brown bears reach sexual maturity at four-and-a-half to seven years of age. Males may become sexually mature at a similar age but are probably not large enough to be able to enter the breeding population until they are eight to ten years old. Mating takes place from early May to the middle of July but implantation does not occur until about October or November. The young are born from about January to March. The litter size ranges from one to four, but two is most common. Cubs remain with their mothers for at least two-and-a-half years, so the most frequently a female can breed is every three years. In some areas, such as near the Arctic coast, the breeding interval is considerably longer. Longevity in the wild is 20 to 25 years. Brown bears are loners, except for females accompanied by their cubs. However, brown bears will congregate at high densities where food is abundant, such as at salmon streams or garbage dumps. Brown bears mainly eat vegetation such as grasses, sedges, bulbs, and roots. They also eat insects such as ants as well as fish and small mammals. In some areas they have become significant predators of large hoofed mammals such as moose, caribou, and elk.

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