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• Students will locate grizzlies from web site info and draw corresponding locations on a world map.
• Students will access web sites and record data of grizzly populations.
• Students will use this information to make comparisons, and predictions.
• Students will define the major components of habitat; food, water, space, and shelter.
• Students will learn the different types of food grizzlies eat.
• Students will determine if too many bears are gathering food in a small amount of space.

Discussion questions:

• Where would you find most of the grizzly bears in the world?
• What habitats do you think they like? What do they eat?
• Where do they live?

Distribution and Status of Brown Bears:

• around the World
• in North America (map here)
• in Eurasia
• in Europe

Mountains have drastic changes in growing conditions in a small amount of space. Elevation, climate, the aspect or face of a mountain and climate affects the plant growth. Mountains can have a desert biome, grassland biome, forest biome, and alpine biome located on the same mountain. The abundance and variety of food attracts many animals to mountain envrioments.

Grizzly bears once roamed the great plains of North America. Bears need lots of space. The habitat they need to survive is shrinking. Habitat refers to the food, space, shelter, and water a species needs to survive. Today these magnificent animals are a threatened species. They prefer to remain in remote areas. As the human population grows there are less remote areas left for grizzlies.

Student teams can examine where grizzly bears are in the world by looking recent data. Create poster maps of existing grizzly populations in the world. 

Data Tables Available

• Eurasia
• Europe
• United States and Canada

1. On what continents will you find grizzly bears?

 
2. About how many grizzlies are in the world?

 
3. How many are in North America?

 
4. What country has the most grizzlies?

 
5. Why do you think that is so?

 
6. Why are small populations of bears declining around the world?

 

Concept Application - Habitat needs of a grizzly

1.Create cards from construction paper based upon the number of students in your class. Use initials and numbers for the name of a food and the amount of food:

• nuts
• berries
• insects
• meat
• plants
2. Students are to gather 80 pounds of food to survive.

3. Each student has an envelope with his or her name on it. This is their den.

4. Students gather around a 50 X 50 ' area. The place their "dens" (envelopes) around the outside. The food squares are scattered within this area.

5. Students gather the food one square at a time and bring it back to their den. Emphasize: Bears do not run down their food, they gather it. so no running.

6. Do not tell students what the intials and numbers mean on the colored squares until everything has been gathered.

7. Assign 3 bears with special challenges:

• One bear is blinded by a porcupine so must wear a blindfold.
• one bear is crippled, so must hop on one foot when gathering food.
• one bear has 2 cubs so must gather twice as much food as other bears.
8. After all the food has been gathered take the class into the classroom.

9. Have students record the food they gathered in each of the five categories and the pounds of food gathered.

10. Find out how many bears survived the winter.

11. Find out how many bears could have survived.

Analysis and/or Assessment Questions

1. How much food did a bear need to collect to survive the winter?

2. How much food did you collect in each category?

• Nuts
• Berries
• Insects
• Meat
• Plants
3. Make a spreadsheet and put the amounts of food from each category into it.

4. Have the computer make a pie graph from your spreadsheet.

5. Draw a picture of your pie chart and label it.

6. What percentage of the pie were each of these categories:

• Nuts
• Berries
• Insects
• Meat
• Plants
7. Why do you think there is a difference in the numbers from your spread sheet and the pie graph?

8. If you were to do this activity again what would you do differently?

9. What observations can you make about grizzly survival based upon this activity?

10. What habitat do grizzlies need to survive?

11. What are some reasons habitat is lost? war, human caused mortality, industry, subdivisions, roads.