Bears

Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, and Eurasia. Common characteristics of modern bears include large bodies with stocky legs, long snouts, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and short tails.

The Tremarctinae or short-faced bears is a subfamily of Ursidae that contains one living representative, the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) of South America, and several extinct species from four genera: the Florida spectacled bear (Tremarctos floridanus), the North American giant short-faced bears Arctodus (A. pristinus and A. simus), the South American giant short-faced bear Arctotherium (including A. angustidens, A. vetustum, A. bonariense, A. wingei, and A. tarijense) as well as Plionarctos (P. edensis and P. harroldorum), which is thought to be ancestral to the other three genera. O

Ursinae is a subfamily of Ursidae (bears) named by Swainson (1835). It was assigned to Ursidae by Bjork (1970), Hunt (1998), and Jin et al. (2007).

Ailuropodinae is a subfamily of Ursidae that contains only one extant species, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) of China. The fossil record of this group has shown that various species of pandas were more widespread across the Holarctic, with species found in places such as Europe, much of Asia, North America and even Africa. The earliest pandas were not unlike other modern bear species in that they had an omnivorous diet but by around 2.4 million years ago, pandas had evolved to be more herbivorous. The giant panda (Ailuropoda) belongs to the order of Carnivora, this means that the m

the hunting of bears for sport or for their fat, meat, and pelts

heraldic animal

body fat from bears, used for many applications and once thought to be a treatment for hair loss

animal enclosure

Spray to deter charging bears