JOAN CARTAN-HANSEN, HOST: We wear coats in the winter.

So do bears.

Their coat is their fur.

Many places in the United States have black bears, but only a few places have grizzly bears.

So, let's find out more about grizzly bears.

[MUSIC] CARTAN-HANSEN: One of the few places you can find grizzly bears is the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

You're in it when you visit Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park plus parts of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has black bears and grizzly bears.

The difference between the two is about more than just the color of those coats they wear.

This is where things get tricky.

A black bear's fur can be brown, and a grizzly bear's can be black.

Yes, it's confusing.

Bears coats come in many shades of black, brown, blonde and even silver.

That's why you have to look at other ways to identify bears.

Let's start with their faces.

Black bears have long, pointy noses.

Grizzly bears have a flatter face, more like a dinner plate.

Black bear ears are pointy.

Grizzly ears are round.

Next, those digging claws.

Grizzly claws are twice as long as black bear claws.

And grizzly bears have that signature shoulder hump from all that digging.

Black bears don't have that.

The average male grizzly bear weighs up to 700 pounds while females top out at 400 pounds.

Mama grizzlies are called sows.

They have baby bears while they're hibernating.

Baby bears are called cubs.

In the coldest months of the year, from December to March, grizzly bears hibernate.

They dig dens deep in the forest where they rest for the winter.

They don't eat when they're hibernating so when they come out in the spring, they are really hungry.

Those cubs burst out of the den in the spring with a lot of energy and they're excited to explore.

Sows have at least one cub, but often there are two cubs at the same time, or twins.

Sometimes there are three, or triplets.

And in extremely rare cases four or five cubs.

That's a lot of mouths to feed for mama grizzly so she's always looking for food.

Grizzlies spend all summer fattening up for their next round of winter hibernation.

Grizzlies eat meat and plants, like we do, so they are called omnivores.

They'll eat other animals, like deer and squirrels, but they like roots and bulbs too.

Their long claws come in handy for harvesting plants.

Insects are on the grizz menu too.

They'll eat ants, moths and one of our favorites, berries.

Piles of berries.

Especially.huckleberries.

THOMAS BAUMEISTER, ACCESS WILD LLAMA OUTFITTER: Whenever you see huckleberries, you go like, 'oh that's good'.

Because what it means, huckleberries means fat bears, which means happy bears, which means bears stay where they are.

They don't have to go anywhere else to find food.

They don't have to look for dirty barbeque grills.

They don't have to go into apple orchards.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Sometimes, people and bears are on the same trail so hikers and berry pickers should carry bear spray and make a lot of noise.

If a grizzly hears you coming down the trail, they'll scoot before you're in their way.

BAUMEISTE: The fact that we have hundreds, hundreds of grizzly bears roaming this landscape and at the same time you have all these people and they're still thriving.

They're not just surviving, they're thriving.

They're doing well as a population.

They're not going to go extinct any time soon.

That's a remarkable thing.

CARTAN-HANSEN: Unlike black bears, grizzly bears are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

50 years ago, the number of grizzlies living in the west was so low they almost disappeared.

Listing grizzlies as a threatened animal means they can't be hunted or killed, and they have to be given open-wild space to recover without us bothering them.

ALICIA MURPHY, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK HISTORIAN: A century ago, we were the worst threat to grizzly bears and reducing their population almost to extinction.

We are in a very good spot now, I think, compared to 100 years ago.

CARTAN-HANSEN: The great thing about putting grizzlies on the Endangered Species list is, it worked.

In the 1980s, there were less than 200 grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Today, there are more than 1,000.

JUSTIN SCHWABEDISSEN, BEAR BIOLOGIST: The grizzly bear population is considered robust.

It's phenomenal to be a part of that.

CARTAN-HANSEN: There are more grizzlies sharing the woods with us now, so we have to be more 'bear aware' when we play outside.

Remember to store your food in these locked bins that are set up in campgrounds around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

And carry a can of pepper spray when you hike just in case you run into a bear.whether it be wearing a coat that is black.or brown or any other color.

If you want to learn more about the grizzly bear, check out the Science Trek website.

You'll find it at ScienceTrek.org.

[MUSIC] ANNOUNCER: Presentation of Science Trek on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Idaho National Laboratory, mentoring talent and finding solutions for energy and security challenges.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.