Grizzly Bear Hunting Guides and Outfitters – Trips and Guided Hunts

The Grizzly Bear are a massive animal native to Western North America. Large numbers of these great beasts once roamed throughout the northwestern United States, but that number has dropped dramatically. Grizzly bear hunting guides and outfitters can be found in Alaska and several providences of Canada that offer trips and guided hunts for this big game.

The Grizzly Bear is considered by many hunters to be the most dangerous of all North American wild animals. It is much larger and heavier than the black bear and has a much more savage disposition. Full-grown male grizzly bears average eight or nine feet in length and weigh about 900 pounds. But as a recently killed grizzly bear in Alaska showed, this big game can reach 1600 pounds and 14 feet in length. Imagine a grizzly bear hunt or trip that you go home with a trophy like that.

Some grizzlies are brownish-yellow. Others are gray and are called silver-tips because of the ends of the hairs being tipped with white and giving the animals a grizzled appearance. A third variety, the cinnamon grizzly, is reddish-brown. The claws of the grizzly are very long, but so blunt that it rarely climbs trees after it is grown. Although the claws will shred anything they get a hold of. Its head has a “scooped-out” look from the side, unlike the rounded profile of the black bear. The massive, long-snouted head is equipped with powerful jaws, bearing wide flat-crowned molar teeth for grinding up food. Bears also have canine, or eye, teeth for eating meat. Its shoulders are also more humped than those of the black bear. While on a guided hunt or trip it is not uncommon to come across the evidence of kills made by the grizzly.

The grizzly bear as others in this species has poor sight and hearing. The outfitter or guide that you hire will most likely take advantage of this weakness in the planning of hunts. They depend on their sense of smell more then the other senses. They are considered to be a “Plantigrade”; meaning that they walk on the sole and five toes, each foot almost flat on the ground as they walk. Despite their large size and lazy walk they can run incredibly fast for their size for very short distances.

The grizzly bear in normally thought of as a carnivore, they feed on whatever they can find. This includes meat from dead animals that they may or may not have killed, to vegetables, fish, honey, insects, grasses, or fruits. They are actually considered to be “Omnivorous”, meaning they can eat whatever they find.

Grizzlies once were found from the Black Hills of South Dakota westward and from Mexico to northern Alaska. They fed on deer and buffalo, and sometimes raided western ranches to kill cattle and horses. But so any grizzlies have been hunted in the United States that they are seldom seen now except in the deep forests and on the higher slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Unlike most bears, grizzlies do not hibernate fully through the winter, but are in a light hibernation state. They sleep wherever they can find a new home such as; caves, dug out areas from fallen trees, or other kinds of shelter. This is not the deep hibernation that we all think of. The grizzly bear’s body temperature remains high and does wake multiple times during the winter.

The United States Forest Service has estimated that there are a few hundred grizzlies inhabiting Yellowstone National Park. Some of them are fine specimens, but do pose a threat to hikers and campers at the park. Of course grizzly bear hunting guides and outfitters do not offer their services in these areas as it is protected land.

Scientific Classification: Bears make up the family Ursidae. The names for some of the bears are: black bear, genus Ursus, species U. americanus; grizzly bear, U. horribilis; Kodiak bear, U. middendorffi; brown bear of Europe and Asia, U. arctos; polar bear, Thalarctos maritimus; sun bear, or Malay bear, Helarctos malayanus; and sloth bear, Melursus ursinus.

Tips for Grizzly Bear Hunting