Bear Facts: The Ultimate Guide To Bears for Kids & Adults

Climate change is also a significant threat, especially polar bears. They depend on finding seals on sea ice for their meals, and they’ll often pass the summer months without eating while they wait for ice to solidify. Female bears rouse during hibernation in their dens to give birth to up to four cubs. Giant pandas, which do not hibernate, usually give birth to just one cub.

Bear Facts: Do Bears Hibernate?

These small ursines have the shortest fur of any bear species, their chests marked with light, reddish-brown, U-shaped patches of fur. Scientists recognize eight species as well as numerous subspecies of bears, which live in different regions, that have differences in body shape and coloration. Bears are found in a wide variety of habitats, from the Arctic pack ice (polar bear) to high-altitude South American rainforests (spectacled bear). Bears are extremely adaptable, and can move from habitat to habitat throughout the course of a year. One of the most widespread misconceptions about bears is that they hibernate. Instead, during the winter months, many species of bear retreat into dens.

Distribution and habitat

Historically, they have provided meat and fur and in traditional cultures a high spiritual importance was placed on bears. And, whether in the wild, in zoos, or in art, they add greatly to the human wonder of nature. Despite such values, and the common religious view of humans as stewards of creation, bears sometimes have suffered greatly at the hands of humans. The Brown Bear can be found in Alaska, bear flag vs bull flag western Canada,and parts of Washington, Montana and Wyoming. Small individual populations are scattered throughout parts of Europe and Asia. Brown bears range in colour from almost black, brown to very light brown or blonde.

When they’re not living on pack ice and shorelines, polar bears swim in open water, feeding on seals and walruses. Some species of bears, including Asiatic black bears and sun bears, are also threatened by the illegal wildlife trade. Bear bile, which is produced in the gall bladder, is an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Asiatic black bears and sun bears may be poached for their gall bladders, paws, skins, and other parts. Sometimes American black bears are also targeted for the same reasons.

They are mainly found in the mountainous regions of the Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. The giant pandas are herbivorous and live mostly off of bamboo, helping to control the rapid spread of bamboo in the ecosystems they live in. They are solitary animals that live in their own territories and rarely interact with humans.

The following 12 species of bears can be found all over the world. Considering that early humans used to worship bears as gods, our relationship with ursines hasn’t exactly been stellar over the last few hundred years. Bears are especially susceptible to habitat destruction, are often hunted for sport, and tend to become the scapegoats whenever campers are attacked in the wild or garbage cans are overturned in suburbs. Spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatos) are the only bears native to South America, inhabiting cloud forests at elevations over 3,000 feet.

The IUCN lists six bear species as vulnerable or endangered, and even least concern species, such as the brown bear, are at risk of extirpation in certain countries. The poaching and international trade of these most threatened populations are prohibited, but still ongoing. Home ranges occupied by individual bears vary in size depending on the abundance of food, and larger areas are used when food is in short supply.

Brown bears have thick fur that can range in color from light tan or dark brown, to almost black. They have a large and muscular body, with a short tail and rounded ears. The genera Melursus and Helarctos are sometimes also included in Ursus. The Asiatic black bear and the polar bear used to be placed in their own genera, Selenarctos and Thalarctos, which are now placed at subgenus rank.

Polar Bear

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) stalk the grasslands, forests, and scrublands of Southeast Asia. These bears have long, shaggy coats of fur and white chest marks; they feed on termites, which they find using their acute sense of smell. Bears (Ursus species) are large, four-legged mammals that have a unique status in pop culture. They are not quite as cuddly as dogs or cats; not quite as dangerous as wolves or mountain lions; but they are decidedly ever-compelling objects of fear, admiration, and even envy. Found in a variety of environments from Arctic ice pack to tropical forests, bears live on every continent except Antarctica. In fact, the panda is the most distantly-related, and oldest, of all bear species.

They will also eat both carrion and the meat of animals that they have captured themselves. They have a distinctive blackish-brown coat and light-colored muzzle, with a white patch on the chest. These bears are omnivorous, feeding mostly on fruits, nuts, roots, and insects. Brown bears are omnivores, which means they eat both plants and animals. Their diet mostly consists of grasses, roots, nuts, and berries, as well as deer, elk, and fish.

The Eight ( Bear Species of the World

Grizzly bears can be eight feet long and weigh more than a thousand pounds. The members of Caniformia are the animals most closely related to bears. All of the different members of the order Carnivora share the same meat-eating ancestors. A member of Carnivora can be identified by its specialized meat-eating teeth. Specifically at Katmai National Park, bears are “drawn to the large number of salmon readily available” as the fish have long been the “lifeblood of the area,” the NPS said.

Bears have very few natural predators, and most species sit either near to, or at the very top of their respective food chains. The largest bears are almost 10 ft. (3 m) tall when standing on their hind legs, and are immensely strong. Polar bears are one of the most iconic and beloved animals on Earth. They live in the Arctic Circle, which encompasses parts of Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and Alaska. Bears may be the most antisocial mammals on the face of the earth. While denning, the bear does not eat, drink, urinate or defecate (i.e. pee or poop).

• Young bears are more vulnerable to predation because of their smaller size and thus may be killed by other carnivores such as wolves or cougars but most importantly by other bears, especially males.
• American black bears are omnivores, eating mostly vegetation like grasses, berries, nuts, fruits, and roots but also feeding on insects, small mammals, and fish.
• American black bears love berries and insect larvae when they’re available, and giant pandas mainly eat bamboo, though they’ll also eat small animals.
• Although there are some differences among the species, in general, female bears generally become sexually mature at between 4 and 8 years of age and have litters every three or four years.

Adult females are slightly smaller by about one-third to one-half of the male’s weight, according to the competition’s website. Endemic to the Middle East, the Syrian brown bear is typically around six feet tall. It has a light to dark brown fur color that usually fades to grayish-white on its muzzle. Its ears are small and rounded, and it has long claws for digging.

Grizzly bears

• 4-Asiatic black bear, Himalayan black bear, moon bear –Ursus thibetanus Asiatic black bears have long black fur with a distinct white patch on the chest that is often crescent-shaped.
• Compared to other living bears, this species has a more rounded face with a relatively short and broad snout.
• The brown bear, or grizzly bear, (Ursus arctos) is a large bear, although its weight varies between local populations.
• Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, and Eurasia.
• The members of a suborder are more closely related to each other than the members of an order, but not as closely related as members of a family.

Bears living in warm climates also do not deep sleep since food is available for them year round. Male polar bears generally stay active through the winter, while females den up to have their cubs. 4-Asiatic black bear, Himalayan black bear, moon bear –Ursus thibetanus Asiatic black bears have long black fur with a distinct white patch on the chest that is often crescent-shaped. The fur around the shoulders and throat is particularly long, and their ears are relatively large. Asiatic black bears are more carnivorous than their American counterparts, although only a small part of their diet is made up of meat.

Bear Habitat

Adult bears do not live together or cooperate to find food or defend each other. Exceptions are the Asiatic brown bear and the sloth bear, which sometimes live in family groups. Brown bears and polar bears also sometimes come together in larger groups to take advantage of a food source, but do not cooperate with each other (Voelker 1986). Most bears living in northern areas go into a period of deep sleep in the winter. Many prefer to use the term “denning” in place of hibernating. The black bear’s body temperature remains relatively stable (depressed from 37°C to approximately 31°C) and it can be easily aroused.