Bears in the US: Where Black, Grizzly and Polar Bears Live

The three US bear species at a glance

Weights vary a lot with season, age and food. Bears are heaviest in fall, just before they den.

American black bears: the bear of about 40 states

The American black bear is by far the most common and widespread bear in the US. A 2011 estimate put the US population at roughly 340,000–465,000 black bears, and that figure did not even include Alaska and several other states. North America as a whole probably holds well over 800,000.

Despite the name, black bears are not always black. In the East most are black, but in the Rockies and the West about half are brown, cinnamon or blond, which leads many people to mistake them for grizzlies.

Where black bears live, region by region

• Northeast and Appalachians: almost continuous range from Maine through New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. Great Smoky Mountains National Park has about 1,500 bears, roughly two per square mile, and western North Carolina’s population has grown to more than 8,000.
• Southeast: separate populations in Florida (about 4,000 bears in a 2015 state estimate), the coastal plain of Georgia and the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The Louisiana black bear was protected under the Endangered Species Act until it recovered and was removed from the list in 2016.
• Upper Midwest: large populations in the northern forests of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
• West: the Rocky Mountain states, the Pacific Northwest, California’s mountains and coast ranges, Alaska, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.
• South-central: the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and a small population in West Texas around Big Bend, where bears returned from Mexico in the late 1980s.

Black bears are absent, or seen only as rare wanderers, in Hawaii, Delaware and much of the farmed Midwest and Great Plains, such as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas. That pattern is slowly changing as young bears push into Ohio, Kentucky and Iowa from neighboring states.

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states

The grizzly is a North American form of the brown bear, the same species as the Kodiak bear and the brown bears of Europe and Asia (see our brown bear profile). Grizzlies once roamed from Alaska to Mexico and east across the Great Plains, and an estimated 50,000 lived in the western lower 48 before European settlement. Hunting, trapping and poisoning cut that to fewer than 1,000 by the 1970s, in about 2% of the former range. The California grizzly, the bear on the state flag, was gone by the 1920s.

Today about 2,000 grizzlies live in the contiguous United States, in a few separate areas:

• Northern Continental Divide (Montana): the largest population, about 1,000 bears or more, centered on Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
• Greater Yellowstone (Wyoming, Montana, Idaho): about 1,000 bears, up from roughly 136 in 1975.
• Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk (Montana, Idaho, Washington): two small populations along the Canadian border, each with fewer than about 100 bears.
• North Cascades (Washington) and Bitterroot (Idaho, Montana): no confirmed resident population. In 2024 federal agencies approved a plan to restore grizzlies to the North Cascades.

Grizzlies in the lower 48 were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Attempts to remove that protection for the Yellowstone population have been overturned in court, and how the bears should be managed is still debated between federal agencies, states, tribes and conservation groups.

Brown bears in Alaska

Alaska holds about 30,000 brown bears, more than the rest of the United States combined. They live almost everywhere in the state, from the rainforests of the southeast to the Arctic tundra. Bears along the coast, which feast on spawning salmon, grow much larger than inland grizzlies, and big males on Kodiak Island can top 600 kg (1,320 lb).

Some places have remarkable densities. Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska is home to an estimated 1,600 brown bears, Kodiak Island to about 3,500, and Katmai National Park to roughly 2,000, where bears gather to fish for salmon at Brooks Falls in July and September.

Polar bears in Alaska

The polar bear is the only US bear that depends on the sea. It lives along Alaska’s northern and northwestern coasts and on the sea ice of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Two populations reach the US:

• Southern Beaufort Sea population, shared with Canada, which declined in the 2000s and is now thought to number fewer than 1,000 bears.
• Chukchi Sea population, shared with Russia, estimated at close to 3,000 bears in 2016.

Polar bears were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2008 because their sea ice habitat is shrinking. As summer ice retreats farther from shore, more bears spend late summer and fall on land, and more pregnant females now dig their winter dens on land rather than on drifting ice.

How to tell a black bear from a grizzly

Color is not a reliable clue, because both species can be black, brown or blond. Look at the body shape instead:

• Shoulder hump: grizzlies have a large muscular hump above the shoulders; black bears do not, and their highest point is usually the rump.
• Face: grizzlies have a dished, concave face; black bears have a straighter profile from forehead to nose.
• Ears: grizzly ears are short and rounded; black bear ears are taller and more pointed.
• Claws: grizzly front claws are long, 5–10 cm (2–4 in), and gently curved for digging; black bear claws are shorter and sharply curved for climbing.

Our full guide to grizzly bears vs black bears explains these features with photos and measurements.

When bears are active

In most of the US, bears are active from about March or April to October or November and spend the winter in dens. In the far south, many black bears in Florida and along the Gulf Coast stay active much of the winter, and only pregnant females and mothers with cubs reliably den. Spring and fall are the times bears are most often seen, because they roam widely in search of food, eating heavily in late summer and fall to build fat. Our article on whether bears hibernate explains what happens in the den.

Where to see bears in the US

• Black bears: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (especially Cades Cove), Shenandoah National Park, Yosemite and many national forests.
• Grizzlies and black bears: Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks, often seen from roads with binoculars or a spotting scope.
• Alaska brown bears: Katmai, Lake Clark and Denali national parks and Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.
• Polar bears: rarely seen in the US except in a few remote villages on Alaska’s Arctic coast.

Staying safe in bear country

Bear attacks are rare, and most bears avoid people. Most conflicts start when bears get used to human food or are surprised at close range, especially a mother with cubs. The basic rules are simple:

• Keep your distance. Yellowstone and other parks require visitors to stay at least 100 yards (91 m) from bears. Use binoculars or a telephoto lens, and never approach, follow or feed a bear.
• Store food and trash securely. Use bear-proof containers and lockers where provided, and in bear country take in bird feeders and pet food in spring, summer and fall.
• Make noise on trails in thick cover, hike in groups, and follow park advice, which in many western parks includes carrying bear spray.
• If anyone is injured, call 911 immediately and get emergency medical help.

For more on risks and statistics, see are bears dangerous?