The barren-ground grizzly is found on the mainland of Nunavut and is more common in the Kitikmeot Region than in the Kivalliq Region.

The barren-ground grizzly bear (atsaq) is smaller than its cousins elsewhere in North America; males weigh up to 215 kilograms, while females weigh up to 108 kilograms. Their hair, ranging from black to blond, is often flecked, or "grizzled," with white or grey. These bears exist on the margins of their range. Normally, grizzlies kill or scavenge animals, especially ungulates such as caribou, ground squirrels and insects, as well as garbage.

*Reproduced from an article Land Mammals by Marian and Mike Ferguson
contained in the Nunavut Handbook