User:KayleeT1127/Distribution of brown bears

North America
Brown bears live in Alaska, east through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, south through British Columbia and through the western half of Alberta. The Alaskan population is estimated at a healthy 32,000 individuals. Small populations exist in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of northwest Wyoming (with about 600 animals), the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem of northwest Montana (with about 750 animals), the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem of northwest Montana and northeast Idaho (with about 30–40 animals), the Selkirk Ecosystem of northeast Washington and northwest Idaho (with about 40–50 animals), and the North Cascades Ecosystem of northcentral Washington (with about 5–10 animals). These five ecosystems combine for a total of roughly 1,470 wild grizzlies still persisting in the contiguous United States. Unfortunately, these populations are isolated from each other, inhibiting any genetic flow between ecosystems. This poses one of the greatest threats to the future survival of the grizzly bear in the contiguous United States. Conservation efforts to increase this number begin with reducing human-bear interactions and creating protected wildlife spaces.

A small brown bear population once lived in the northern parts of Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona. This population is now extinct as the last known Mexican grizzly bear was shot in 1976. These bears were smaller and lighter than the Canadian and United States brown bear population. Because of their lighter coloring, they were often referred to as “el oso plateado” (the silver bear).