Sense of Life

Ancestry

• Most recent carnivore to evolve (Ursidae): 40 million years
• Distant cousin of dogs (Canidae)

Size (Adult Male Grizzly in Montana)

• Length, 8 feet
• Average weight, 350 to 700 pounds
• Forepaws 5" long, 6" wide; hind paws 10" long, 6" wide; claws, 4"
• Hump is a mass of muscles for power digging, striking with forepaws

• Possibly equal to human vision
• Nearsighted, to see food at ground level
• Eyes directed forward; doesn't need to worry about predators
• Can distinguish colors, though do not see them as humans do
• Good peripheral vision

• Fair to moderately good (for a wild animal)
• Far more sensitive than human hearing, in order to locate movements of rodents underground
• Can hear human conversation from 300 meters (that's 328 yards, or more than 3 football fields away)

--Joseph Mussulman; reviewed by Charles Jonkel