How big was the tallest recorded bear?

The world’s largest known bear from an existing species was an 11-foot-tall male polar bear that weighed 2,200 pounds, as Discovery News reported in February 2011. The largest recorded bear from an extinct species was at least 11 feet tall and weighed 3,500 pounds, according to National Geographic News.

The skeleton of the prehistoric South American short-faced bear was discovered in Buenos Aires Province in Argentina in 1935. The bear's upper arm bone was nearly as big as that of an elephant, and he was though to be the world’s largest and most powerful land predator during the Pleistocene Ice Age.