After viewing our grizzly in the wild, this bear seemed to pale in comparison. Yet it was an interesting bear - note the claws - from the coast of Alaska, and as such far larger and more powerful than any bear from the interior of that state or any of the other states to the south. For coastal bears can feed on seemingly unlimited quantities of salmon, and those that are the largest of the bears can take the best fishing spots. So size - and the appetite that supports size - are positively evolved traits amongst these beasts, leading to survival, not necessarily of the fittest, but the largest and strongest.

Their brother and sister bears elsewhere don't have the same resources for food, and so size is less a factor in who survives from one year to the next.