Worldwide Bears
All bears are mammals in the order Carnivora and family Ursidae. There are eight species of bears on Earth; they are listed below by continent:
Photo Credit (top, left to right): Shiv’s Fotografia, Wikimedia Commons; Ucumari Photography, Flickr; Stuart Seeger, Wikimedia Commons; StockSnap. (bottom, left to right): Freerange Stock; Lisa Hupp, Pixnio; PickPik; Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Flickr
Despite common misconceptions, koalas are not bears - they are marsupials.
Additionally, although pandas are considered bears, red pandas are not - red pandas are also in the suborder Caniformia, but are in the family Ailuridae.
This post contains information about each of the eight species of bear, their habitats, and identifying characteristics, where applicable.
Asiatic black bear, a.k.a. Moon bear: Ursus thibetanus
Photo Credit: Shiv’s Fotografia, Wikimedia Commons.
Range: Asia, specifically “north of Pakistan, south of Afghanistan, east of the Himalayans, north of Vietnam, south of China, and in Thailand” according to ADW.
Image Source: Asiatic black bear, IUCN
Habitat: primarily forest; also shrubland, grasslands, and inland wetlands (IUCN)
Physical characteristics:
Males weigh approximately 240-330 pounds, while females weigh approximately 140-200 pounds
Ears are farther apart than American black bear
Light brown or white “V” shape on chest, light nose
Distinguishing Asiatic black bears from sloth bears:
Diet: Asiatic black bears are omnivores, feeding primarily on insects and other invertebrates.
Behavior: Asiatic black bears are generally nocturnal, but are active during the day at times; they can swim and climb trees. Hibernation patterns vary throughout Asiatic black bear populations; some hibernate, some don’t, and some only hibernate for the most extreme winter conditions (which may or may not be considered torpor rather than hibernation). Although they generally walk on four feet, they stand and “slap” each other to fight.
Sloth bear: Melursus ursinus
Photo Credit: Ucumari Photography, Flickr
Range: India and south Asia.
Image Source: Sloth bear, IUCN
Habitat: According to the IUCN, sloth bears are generally found in forests, savannas, shrublands, and grasslands.
Physical characteristics:
They have thick, dark fur, usually with a white patch of fur on their chest.
Diet: Sloth bears are omnivores, eating primarily termites and other insects as well as fruit, when available.
Behavior: Despite their name, sloth bears can run faster than humans. Their thick coats protect them from termites, and their long claws help them dig up insects to eat. They do not hibernate, and are usually active during the day unless avoiding human interactions.
Sloth bears are highly aggressive towards humans, with or without provocation - which causes aggressive responses from humans in turn. From 2007-2008, they attacked 47 people, causing severe injuries and fatalities. There are a few theories regarding this aggression; first, humans and bears live very close to one another. India is one of the most populated countries in the world, and agricultural and housing expansion into forests has caused conflicts with sloth bear habitat. Second, there are lots of sloth bears near lots of people, unlike in the US, for example, where there are few brown bears near few people. This makes the high number of interactions, injuries, and deaths possible.
Unlike North American bears, sloth bears do attack from a standing position.
Sun bear, a.k.a. honey bear: Helarctos malayanus
Photo Credit: Stuart Seeger, Wikimedia Commons
You may know of sun bears from the Chinese zoo scandal last year where people accused the Hangzhou Zoo in eastern China of trying to pass off a costumed person as a sun bear. Honestly, they totally look like costumed people - but all sun bears always have to me. Experts quickly disputed the claims and confirmed that the bear was, in fact, a bear.
Wong Siew Te, founder of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC), told CNN: “Sun bears stand up high to reach higher ground to investigate their surroundings… female sun bears even hold their cubs with both hands and walk on their feet, very human like, so I guess that’s why people get mistaken.” He also explained that the bear’s “loose, saggy skin” - one of the reasons the bear in question seemed to be wearing a costume - actually “serves an important function in the wild…protecting them from deeper bites and injuries” (CNN).
The sun bears’ range stretches across India and southeast Asia, including Thailand and Malaysia.
Image Source: Sun bear, IUCN
Habitat: forests and shrublands (IUCN)
Physical characteristics:
Sun bears are approximately 75 to 175 pounds
Yellow or light brown patch on their chest - often “V”-shaped
Diet: Sun bears are omnivorous, and they feed on fruit, termites and other insects, small rodents, and even birds!
Behavior: Sun bears are primarily nocturnal and spend lots of time in treetops, searching for fruit to eat. They also use their long claws to dig into tree bark or the ground in search of insects. Interestingly, they use their tongue to eat honey from beehives! However, little of their social structure is known, and requires more research.
Panda bear: Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Photo Credit: StockSnap
Range: In the wild, pandas are only found in China.
Photo Credit: Giant panda, IUCN
Habitat: temperate mountainous forests with dense bamboo understories
Physical characteristics: Pandas are distinctively black and white, with dark spots around their eyes.
Diet: almost entirely bamboo! Even though they have ideal digestive systems for eating meat, they eat almost only bamboo; plus, they have to eat up to 40% of their own body weight every day to get enough nutrients, since bamboo is not efficiently digested. Research shows that, despite these factors, they eat bamboo because of their slow metabolic rate and, potentially, the widespread availability of bamboo over other food sources.
Behavior: Pandas are generally solitary, aside from mating, but they do communicate through scent markings and calls. However, they may occasionally form communities to live in a group territory.
When observed in zoos or wildlife centers, they appear enthusiastic but un-athletic and clumsy as they roll and tumble around their enclosures.
Photo Credit: “Pandas trying to make themselves extinct Part 2,” YouTube
This has made them the subject of many widely-spread memes and videos. However, rolling comes naturally to pandas due to their round body shapes and, apparently, pandas enjoy it!
American black bear: Ursus americanus
Range: Black bears are widely dispersed across North America. They are found in nearly all of Canada, almost every state in the US, and even into northern Mexico.
Photo Credit: American black bear, IUCN
Habitat: Black bears live in a huge variety of habitats.
Physical characteristics: Black bears, despite their name, are not always black. They range in color from black to brown to cinnamon or light blonde - some black bears in the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver are even white, known to Indigenous cultures as Kermode or “Spirit” bears.
Diet: Black bears are omnivores, meaning they eat a bit of everything.
Behavior: Black bear behavior is as varied as their habitats and diets. Generally, they are shy and avoid humans, preferring to forage or hunt away from cities. However, if bears are drawn to neighborhoods or cities in search of food - and if they find it in any form - they can learn to associate people with food. This can be highly detrimental to the bears and dangerous for humans.
More resources:
For information about coexisiting with black bears, see “Be Bear Aware: Guide to Black Bears in Colorado”
To learn how to differentiate black bears from brown bears, check out “Who’s Who: Black Bears vs. Brown Bears”
Brown bear: Ursus arctos
Photo Credit: Lisa Hupp, Pixnio
First things first, are brown bears, grizzly bears, and Kodiak bears the same? In short, yes - they are all brown bears (Ursus arctos). But, these other names refer to specific subpopulations of brown bears.
“Grizzly bears” generally refers to the brown bears in the interior United States - and some consider these to be part of a subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis - while the term “brown bears” is usually applied to those in Alaska and Canada. Meanwhile, Kodiak bears are considered to be coastal brown bears specifically living in the Kodiak Archipelago (just south of Alaska).
There are also European brown bears - they are still the same species, but unlike the North American brown bears, they are relatively small.
Without a doubt, the most famous brown bears in the world might be Katmai National Park’s brown bears. This is in part due to their immense size, but also due to their online presence through the Brooks River cameras and Fat Bear Week.
The Brooks River cameras are posted at the waterfall in Katmai National Park, and are active year-round (although during the off-season, they will play a highlights reel from previous years). During bear season, when bears arrive at the river to fish, the cameras show off the breathtaking scenery and the skill of the bears as they fish over the edge of the falls. I pretty much have them playing 24/7 from early September through October.
Photo Credit: Pradeep Nayak, Unsplash
Fat Bear Week is based off the bears of Brooks River. Every year, the rangers at Katmai National Park put together a March Madness-style bracket featuring the bears; the bracket showcases each bear’s weight at the beginning of the season versus their current weight to show the incredible amount of weight they gain to prepare for winter. Fat Bear Week is intended to celebrate the necessity of fat for the bears’ lives and their incredible ability to survive through winter with very limited food or none at all. It also gathers a community of bear enthusiasts to participate in the voting process and other activities, including chat sessions with park rangers and bear experts.
Range:
Photo Credit: Brown bear, IUCN
Habitat: Brown bears are widely dispersed across the Northern Hemisphere. They are most prevalent in western North America, Russia, and parts of Europe.
Physical characteristics: As their name suggests, brown bears are actually brown (unlike black bears which are not always black). They have a distinctive shoulder hump. Check out “Who’s Who: Black Bears vs. Brown Bears” for more information on their physical characteristics!
Diet: While all brown bears are omnivorous (they eat a little bit of everything), the food they eat might depend on their geographic location. For instance, brown bears in Yellowstone are omnivorous, but some of them actually eat lots of insects. Brown bears in coastal Alaska eat primarily salmon, while brown bears in Montana and interior Alaska follow a more omnivorous diet. However, all bears are opportunistic - if there is an open garbage can or a roadkilled deer, the bears are there.
Behavior: Brown bear behavior is also highly variable; generally, they forage for food in the early morning and evening, but rest during the day. They have large territories and make dens for hibernation and giving birth to cubs.
Polar bear: Ursus maritimus
Photo Credit: NPS Climate Change Response, Flickr
Range: Polar bears are found only in the polar north (most specifically, Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and islands of Norway). They have huge ranges which depend on the quality of the sea ice and availability of food.
Habitat: Polar bears are hugely dependent on sea ice for hunting, resting, mating, and raising their cubs. Their habitats and ranges are constantly changing as sea ice expands in the winter and retreats in the summer. Scientists have identified four distinct ecoregions of sea ice, some of which are better for bears than others! The less ice exists, the more time polar bears must spend on land, increasing conflicts with humans.
Physical characteristics: Polar bears are white or cream due to their hollow outer layer of fur that reflects light. All of their skin under the fur is actually black, which only shows on their dark noses.
They are the largest carnivorous land mammals on Earth and (generally) the largest bears (coastal Alaskan brown bears can weigh comparably or more heavily at the end of summer). They are 7-8 feet long, and females can grow up to 1,000 pounds while males can reach more than 1,700 pounds.
Diet: Polar bears’ diet consists almost entirely of meat - generally seals - but occasionally beluga whales, narwhals, or carcasses of other marine mammals. They have also been recorded eating berries, seaweed, and garbage when other food sources are unavailable. As climate change impacts their habitats, and food availability changes, these bears are in serious danger of losing both their habitats and food.
Behavior: Polar bears are excellent swimmers and, as previously mentioned, rely on sea ice for hunting and mating. Humans are the most significant threat to polar bears due to impacts of anthropogenic climate change.
Unlike black and brown bears, polar bears do not undergo torpor. Instead, they may rest in quiet, dark places on land during the summer - when less sea ice is available for them to hunt on - and rest.
Polar bears can be highly aggressive to humans.
Spectacle bear, a.k.a. Andean black bear: Tremarctos ornatus
Photo Credit: Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Flickr
Range: Spectacle bears are only found in small parts of the Andes mountain range in South America.
Photo Credit: Andean bear, IUCN
Habitat: Spectacle bears live in lush cloud forests in the Andes, often at elevations as high as 14,000 feet. Occasionally, they have been observed in rain forests, coastal deserts, and grasslands.
Physical characteristics: The size of the bears is largely dependent on their sex; male spectacle bears can be 5-6 feet in length and weigh up to 340 pounds, while females are generally 180 pounds or smaller. Spectacle bears have dark, shaggy fur with light markings around their eyes, often giving them the appearance of wearing glasses, which gives them their name. Different bears have different markings, or lack them altogether.
Diet: Spectacle bears are primarily vegetarian, feeding on fruit, berries, cacti, and honey. However, they will eat meat on occasion, such as small rodents, birds, insects, and even small cows when they can get them.
Behavior: Spectacle bears are highly reclusive and rarely spotted by humans. (However, their very small population size is another reason they are rarely seen - deforestation and habitat fragmentation have severely affected spectacle bears.) They are generally nocturnal, very agile and excellent climbers, and generally solitary except when mating or raising young.
Resources
Learn more about bears:
I’m recommending the Ologies podcast again: the two-part Ursinology episode featuring Chris Morgan, Dr. Thea Bechshoft, Dr. Lana Ciarniello, Drew Hamilton, Wes Larson, Tsalani Lassiter, and Danielle Rivet, as well as the Carnivore Ecology episode with Dr. Rae Wynn Grant, who is one of the coolest people ever!
I highly recommend the book Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie. She goes into far more detail than I have been able to here, and combines investigative journalism with emotional storytelling and exciting travel stories. She is an incredible journalist and has been named a National Geographic Explorer!
My resources:
