Kodiak brown bears are known across the world for being big. But according to a new study published April 13 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, Kodiak bears harvested by hunters have gotten even bigger over the past few decades. The study’s authors said this means the population is being well managed.
Kodiak bears are a subspecies of brown bear that live only on the Kodiak archipelago. Scientists estimate that Kodiak bears branched off from other brown bears around 12 thousand years ago. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, male Kodiak bears can weigh up to 1500 pounds, making them the largest brown bear in the world. Nate Svoboda, a Kodiak area biologist with the department and a co-author of the study, said that distinction gives them an almost mythical status, especially with hunters.
“Hunters who are trying to achieve that goal of shooting a trophy animal, there's no better bear to get than a Kodiak brown bear, just because of the sheer size of them," Svoboda said.
ADF&G said there were around 5,000 people applying for just over 300 Kodiak bear hunting permits per year in the early 2000s, meaning less than 1% of people who applied got a permit. Svoboda said the average number of applicants has since more than doubled to around 11,400 per year.
“We get a lot of pressure to increase the harvest, increase the number of permits, and increase the opportunity for hunts," he said. "But we've maintained the status quo.”
Svoboda and the team of study authors wanted to see if maintaining that status quo had affected the size and age of harvested Kodiak bears. They figured that, since hunters usually want to target the biggest—and therefore oldest—animals, the number of older, bigger bears on Kodiak Island would go down.
“This is a trophy hunt, right?" said Michigan State University wildlife biologist and study co-author Jamshid Parchizadeh. "If we do not have larger bears, it means that larger bears are running out, and that's why hunters are hunting smaller bears.”
According to the study, this has been the case for other big game animals across the country, like black bears and bighorn sheep.
After reviewing data from 1987 to 2023 on the skull size and age of harvested bears, the team was surprised to find the opposite result. The average skull size of bears harvested in 2023 was bigger than the skull size of bears that were hunted during the three decades prior. The 2023 bears were also older on average than past years’ bears. The average skull size for harvested bears went up by around 2 centimeters for both males and females, and the average age went up by around 2 years for both sexes as well. Parchizadeh said this means the department is doing a good job at managing the population.
“This lesson can be learned by other managers elsewhere in this world, that if you have good, conservative harvest regulations, you can have healthy and sustainable wild populations," he said.
Svoboda said that the department’s refusal to cave to pressure to increase permits, and education outreach they’ve done with hunters and guides, both played a role in this success. He added that the credit should go not just to managers, but to the people of Kodiak too.
“Those guides out there, their livelihood literally depends on the ability to harvest these bears," he said. "But they're more than willing, time and time again, to reduce their financial income for the betterment of the bears. And it's something that we should be proud of, and they should be proud of.”
Svoboda said the team is hoping to do more research to figure out whether the fact that harvested bears are getting bigger and older means that Kodiak bears in general are also getting bigger and older. But he said his office has documented big boars that appeared to have died of natural causes over the past few years, a sign that these behemoths are living to old age without ever looking down the barrel of a gun.
The 2026 spring hunting season for Kodiak brown bear is open through May 15.
