Latest Bear Stories

The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) is an extinct species that was found in Europe during the Pleistocene. Its range was large and included areas from Great Britain to Spain, Italy, Poland, the Balkans, areas of Germany, Russia, the Caucuses, Romania, and northern areas of Iran. Large numbers of skeletons have been found in Switzerland, southern Germany, Austria, northern Spain, Hungary, Croatia, and Romania. Because so many fossils have been found throughout Europe, some experts assert that there...

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) can be found in North America and northern areas of Eurasia. There are sixteen recognized subspecies of the brown bear. This is the most widely distributed species of bear in the world, although its range is shrinking. Its range includes the Alaska and a few other areas of the United States, areas of Russia, and Romania and other areas of the Carpathian region, as well as Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the Balkans. The brown bear derives its common name from the...

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), also known as the panda, is a species of bear that is native to southwestern and central western areas of China. Its range includes mountain ranges located primarily in Sichuan province, but pandas can also be found in the Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. It once preferred a habitat within lowland areas, but human encroachment has driven the giant panda into small areas, which contain forested habitats. There are two recognized subspecies of the giant...

The Kamchatka brown bear (Ursus arctos beringianus) is also called the far eastern brown bear. It can be found on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the Anadyrsky District, on the Kuril Islands and Karaginskiy Island, and along the coastal area of the Sea of Okhotsk. Southward from there, it can be found on the Stanovoy Range and the Shantar Islands. The range of this bear that is not within the former Soviet Union includes Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. This bear is a subspecies of the...

Brown bears as a group are one of the largest type of bears, second only to polar bears with the Syrian brown bear (Ursus arctos syriacus) being one of the smallest subspecies of brown bears.  Found generally in the mountainous areas in the countries of Iran, Iraq and Turkey and in parts of the former Soviet Union to include Abkhazia, Karabakh, Transcaucasia, Talysh and northern Armenia. These bears find hollow birch trees that flourish in the higher elevations, moreso than pine and other...