Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about bears. There are eight living bear species; how many can you name? Here’s a picture of each - try to name them all before we give you the answers at the end of this video!

Bears originally covered a larger range and could even be found in northern parts of Africa within recorded history, but habitat loss and hunting have harmed their populations and range - though they’ve never been known from Antarctica. Also, there aren’t any bears in Australia. If you guessed “koala bear” was one of the eight bear species, you’d be incorrect - sorry to have to tell you. Red pandas aren’t bears either, though they share a name with one of the species! It might seem strange, because both these small mammals look like they could be smaller versions of bears, but it’s currently believed that the family of bears is most closely related to animals such as seals and walruses!

Bears are mostly found in the northern hemisphere occupying Europe, Asia, and North America, but they’re currently living in parts of South America, too. In size bears may be a mere 55 pounds (25 kilograms), which isn’t much more than our dog Merry. On the flip side, bears can weigh more than 1,700 pounds (771 kilograms) - giving them the title of the largest living terrestrial carnivores!

The name “bear” supposedly comes from Old English and means “brown” but not all bears appear brown. Multiple species sport markings on their chests or faces and potentially the most iconic black and white mammal is a bear! The bear species that come in solid colors have solid colored fur; these bears don’t have the banded fur, or agouti, pattern common in most mammal fur.

Bears are typically considered ‘generalists’ meaning they are able to eat all different kinds of food thus giving them the opportunity to live in many kinds of habitats. Bears may live in mountainous woodlands, on ice floes, in tropical forests, and many more thanks to their omnivorous diet. Bears are true omnivores in that they consume both plant and animal material which may consist of berries, insects, carrion, fish, eggs, honey, insect larvae, nuts, tubers, and grasses; though some species, like polar bears, are almost exclusively carnivorous surviving of seal meat, and giant pandas are almost exclusively vegetarian surviving off bamboo.

In temperate areas, bears may go through periods of low activity and limit their eating, bulking up before settling into a deep slumber. It’s actually a bit of a debate whether or not bears truly “hibernate” - some say bears don’t hibernate because their temperature doesn’t drop low and they can quickly be roused, others say bears do hibernate because their heart rates slow to nearly half - it’s a matter of semantics. Either way, in temperate areas especially, bears may enter a low activity state during the harshest months of the year and it’s usually during this time baby bears are born.

Most of the time bears are solitary, though an exception is made when a mother bear is traveling with her cubs. A female bear may gestate for almost nine months, but the actual development of her cubs is shorter than this. This is because bears can delay egg implantation in their uteruses so that their cubs are born during the most optimal conditions. When baby bears are born they’re about the size of a kitten. A bear will birth one to four cubs and they’ll stay under her protection for up to three years. They’ll need her protection, too, because this is the time bears are most vulnerable. Adult bears typically don’t have to worry about predators, but young bears may be taken by other bears as well as large cats and canids. If they survive these years, bears may live to be more than ten years old in the wild.

All right, time’s up for guesses! The eight species of bears are polar bears, brown bears, black bears, sun bears, moon bears, sloth bears, spectacled bears, and panda bears. Did you get them all?

For more facts on bears, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.