Know your bears?

Polar Bears live in the Arctic, which includes places like Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia in Russia. Their fluffy white fur and thick blubber keep them warm in the freezing cold, and their partially webbed feet make them excellent swimmers! Male Polar Bears can grow to about 2.5 to 3 meters long, while females are usually a bit smaller. They are the largest bears, second only to Kodiak Bears. With sharp claws and a great sense of smell, Polar Bears are excellent hunters. They mainly eat seals but also enjoy leftovers from whales and walruses. Even though they’re called marine mammals, Polar Bears can walk over 20 kilometres every day on land or ice!

Brown Bears can grow over 2 meters long, which is about 7 feet! They enjoy eating plants, berries, big insects, fish, and small animals. You can find them all over the northern hemisphere, including Canada, the USA, Europe, and Asia. Their thick fur can be colors like black, brown, reddish-brown, or even light blonde. Brown Bears have big heads, long snouts, and strong shoulders that help them stand tall. Some types of Brown Bears in North America are the Grizzly Bear, Kodiak Bear, and Mexican Brown Bear.

The American Black Bear lives in many states across the USA, Canada, and Mexico! You can usually find them in forests and bushes, where they munch on nuts, berries, plants, insects, small animals, honey, and even spawning salmon. They sometimes sneak into human garbage looking for snacks, too! These bears can grow up to 1.8 meters long, about 6 feet! They have short claws that are perfect for climbing trees. Most of them have shiny black fur and a brown snout, and some even have white patches on their chest. Plus, American Black Bears are great swimmers!

Giant Pandas live in the mountain areas of central and southwestern China. They typically grow between 1.6 to 1.9 meters long! Pandas are easy to recognize with their cute black patches around their eyes, ears, and on their bodies, while the rest of their fur is fluffy white. One cool thing about Pandas is their special “pseudo thumb” and five fingers, which help them munch on bamboo—an amazing 99% of their diet! Since bamboo doesn’t have much nutrition, they also like to snack on other foods like fish, eggs, and honey. Most bears have round pupils, but Giant Pandas have unique pupils that look like vertical slits.

Sun Bears live in the tropical rainforests of countries like Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. They are about 1.2 meters long, making them one of the smallest bears in the world! Unlike other bears, Sun Bears have short, shiny black fur with a cool orange horseshoe shape on their chest and similar markings on their face. This is why they’re called “Sun” Bears! They have small round ears and a short snout, and even though their feet look a bit funny, they are amazing climbers! Sun Bears have a varied diet that includes lizards, birds, fruits, roots, termites, berries, and insects. They rely on their strong sense of smell to find food since their eyesight isn’t perfect.

Asiatic Black Bears live in Eastern Asia, including countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Japan. They love to stay in forests, especially in hills and mountains. These bears have shiny black fur with a special white crescent-shaped patch on their upper body. Asiatic Black Bears are about 1.3 to 1.9 meters long and have big, cute ears. They eat various foods, like small animals, fish, fruits, berries, nuts, and insects, making them a bit more meat-eating than their American Black Bear cousins.

Sloth Bears can grow up to 1.8 meters tall! They mainly eat nuts and termites but also enjoy munching on birds, eggs, flowers, fruits, honey, and grains. You can find Sloth Bears in the lowland forests of Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. These bears have long, shaggy fur that can be auburn or black and a cool white “V-shaped” mark on their chest. They also have a long, light-coloured snout. Their front paws are unique because they turn inward and have curved claws perfect for digging!

Spectacled Bears have thick fur that’s usually black or brown, and they have cool whitish or cream-coloured rings around their eyes that look like glasses! They typically grow to be about 1.6 to 1.8 meters long. These bears are really adaptable and live in the forested Andes mountains of South America, from Venezuela and Colombia to Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Spectacled Bears love to eat fruits and bromeliads, but they also enjoy berries, grasses, cactus flowers, insects, and even small animals like rodents, rabbits, and birds!

Grizzly Bears are a big type of Brown Bear that live in North America, especially in mountain forests and river valleys. Their thick fur can be yellowish-brown to black, and as they age, their fur often has silver or grey tips! Grizzlies have long claws and can run fast—up to 13 meters per second, which is much faster than a human! They have an amazing sense of smell and love to eat berries, pine nuts, roots, moths, fish, and even leftover animals. Sometimes, Grizzly Bears hunt larger animals like deer and sheep for food.

Red Pandas are small and about the same size as most house cats! They live in southern China and the Himalayan mountains in India and Nepal. These adorable bears mainly eat bamboo shoots, grass, fruits, and sometimes insects or small animals. Red Pandas have special semi-retractable claws and, like Giant Pandas, they have a unique “pseudo thumb.” Unlike other bears, Red Pandas have long, fluffy tails! Red Pandas were previously categorised as bears (or raccoons). Now they have their own unique grouping. However, when Rusty joined TRBs in 2005, he was a bear!