Bears are found in most regions of the world, with some of them remaining quite small and others being massive. Today, the largest (and deadliest) bear in the world is the polar bear, which is generally considered to be around 600 kilograms (1323 pounds), but males can get larger, tipping the scales at up to 800 kilograms (1763 pounds). These huge carnivores live in cold climates, and while they may be beautiful, they are excellent hunters and will eat almost anything they come across.

While the polar bear is huge, it is not the biggest bear ever to walk around in North America. That honor would go to the giant short-faced bear, which stood over 3.3 meters (11 feet) in height on its hind legs and weighed around 1000 kilograms (2204 pounds).

If you happen to travel back in time to see this extinct animal, don’t make the mistake of getting too close and thinking that it must be slow since it is so big. This massive bear is believed to be able to run at up to 60 kilometers (40 miles) per hour, thanks in part to the fact that it had straight forward pointing toes, similar to humans, but unlike modern bears.

Unlike the polar bear, which consumes almost exclusively meat, however, the short-faced bear was likely more of an omnivore. Their diet would have almost certainly been similar to modern black bears or grizzly bears, which will eat berries and other plants for sustenance. They did, however, also eat other animals. It is believed that they hunted animals, but also would have been scavengers, eating already dead animals that they came across.

This large bear went extinct around 11,000 years ago, near the end of the Pleistocene era. It is not known what exactly caused their extinction, but this is around the same time period when other large mammals like mammoths and dire wolves went extinct, so it was most likely changes in the environment that made it more difficult for these large animals to survive.

Whatever the case, skeletal remains of these massive bears have been found, showing that they lived in North America during this time period and would have almost certainly been the largest land animal in the region.

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