12 Different Types of Bears From Around the World

There are eight living species of bear on Earth, all in the family Ursidae: the polar bear, brown bear, American black bear, Asiatic black bear, sun bear, sloth bear, Andean (spectacled) bear and giant panda. Six of those eight — 75% — are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. This guide covers all eight species, plus three well-known regional brown bear subspecies that are often mistaken for separate species and one extinct Ice Age giant, so you can see exactly where the confusing bear counts come from.

While only eight bear species are extant, they inhabit a wide range of habitats across the Northern Hemisphere and, to a lesser extent, the Southern Hemisphere. You can find bears in Asia, Europe, South America, and North America.

Modern bears are distinguished by their large bodies, long snouts, stocky legs, short tails, plantigrade paws, five nonretractile claws, and shaggy hair. When it comes to diet, bears have diverse preferences. For instance, polar bears are carnivorous, for the most part, while the giant pandas’ diet is mostly bamboo. Other species are omnivorous.

Bears are characteristically solitary animals, except mothers with cubs and courting individuals. They may be nocturnal or diurnal, and they have exceptional senses of hearing, sight, and smell.

Don’t let bears’ awkward gait and heavy build fool you. They are skillful climbers, swimmers, and runners. Since prehistoric times, humans have hunted bears for their fur and meat.

They have also been used in entertainment, for instance, trained to dance. In modern times, many types of bears are under pressure due to humans encroaching on and degrading their habits and the illicit trade of bear parts, such as the bile bear market in Asia.

Feature	Information
Types of Bears	Includes species like the Brown bear, American Black bear, Polar bear, Panda bear, and others.
Habitat	Varies by species; forests, mountains, tundra, ice caps, and grasslands.
Diet	Omnivorous in six species; the polar bear is almost entirely carnivorous and the giant panda almost entirely bamboo.
Size and Weight	Adults range from about 60 pounds (sun bear) to roughly 1,300–1,700 pounds for the largest male polar bears and coastal brown bears.
Hibernation	Most species den through winter. Sun bears and sloth bears do not, and only pregnant female polar bears den.
Lifespan	Generally 20–30 years in the wild, depending on the species.
Social Behavior	Mostly solitary, except during mating season, mothers with cubs, and seasonal food concentrations such as salmon runs.
Conservation Status	Six of the eight species are Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Only the brown bear and American black bear are Least Concern.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists six of the eight bear species as Vulnerable — the polar bear, giant panda, sun bear, sloth bear, Asiatic black bear and Andean bear. None is currently classed as Endangered; the giant panda was downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2016 after a nationwide census found 1,864 wild pandas, a 17% rise over the previous decade. Only the brown bear and the American black bear are Least Concern. Here is our guide to every one of them.

How Many Types of Bears Are There? Eight Species, at a Glance

Every bear alive today belongs to one of eight species. Any list longer than eight — including this one — is counting subspecies or extinct animals alongside the living species. That is worth knowing before you read on, because it is the single most common source of confusion about bears.

Species	Scientific name	IUCN status	Adult male weight	Where it lives
Polar bear	Ursus maritimus	Vulnerable	350–650 kg (770–1,430 lb)	Arctic sea ice and coasts
Brown bear (incl. grizzly)	Ursus arctos	Least Concern	180–600 kg (400–1,300 lb)	North America, Europe, Asia
American black bear	Ursus americanus	Least Concern	60–250 kg (130–550 lb)	North America
Asiatic black bear	Ursus thibetanus	Vulnerable	60–200 kg (130–440 lb)	Southern and eastern Asia
Sun bear	Helarctos malayanus	Vulnerable	27–65 kg (60–145 lb)	Southeast Asian lowland forest
Sloth bear	Melursus ursinus	Vulnerable	80–145 kg (175–320 lb)	India, Sri Lanka, Nepal
Andean (spectacled) bear	Tremarctos ornatus	Vulnerable	100–175 kg (220–385 lb)	Andes of South America
Giant panda	Ailuropoda melanoleuca	Vulnerable	85–125 kg (190–275 lb)	Mountain forests of southwest China

So why does this list have twelve entries?

Because four of the animals below are not separate species. The grizzly bear, the Marsican brown bear and the Tibetan blue bear are all regional subspecies of one species, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) — a grizzly is Ursus arctos horribilis, the Marsican bear is U. a. marsicanus and the Tibetan blue bear is U. a. pruinosus. They look and behave differently enough to be worth their own sections, but a biologist counting species counts them once. The short-faced bear is the fourth exception: it has been extinct for roughly 11,000 years. We have kept all four in because they are the ones readers ask about — but they are labelled honestly here rather than padding a count of “types of bears” to twelve.

Different Types of Bears from Around the World

1. Polar Bears

Polar bears spend so much time in the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice that they are often classified as marine mammals. But if you consider them terrestrial mammals, they’d be the largest land predators on Earth.

Polar bears have black skin under their clear guard hairs (although it looks cream-colored or white); you can only notice this by looking at their nose.

Measured from nose to tail, adult males are about 8 to 10 feet long, and males are roughly twice the size of females. A typical male polar bear weighs 350–650 kg (770–1,430 lb); exceptionally large males reach about 800 kg (1,760 lb), and the heaviest ever recorded, shot in Alaska in 1960, weighed 1,002 kg (2,209 lb). Females are far smaller, at roughly 150–250 kg (330–550 lb). Figures near 1,700 pounds describe the top of the range, not an average animal.

A water-repellant coat and a layer of fat shield polar bears from the frigid air and water. They hunt for bearded and ringed seals by standing on ice floats and diving on them. Their exceptional sense of smell also bolsters their hunting efforts. They can smell a seal covered by three feet of snow from a mile away.

Polar bears evolved from brown bears, though exactly when is genuinely disputed: genomic analyses of 89 complete genomes put the split at roughly 343,000–479,000 years ago, while a 2022 study of a 100,000-year-old polar bear genome argued for 1.3–1.6 million years. We flag the disagreement rather than pick a number. Today they are now considered a threatened species due to the ongoing loss of habitat caused by climate change.

See Related: Fastest Animals in the World

2. Panda Bears

Pandas are one of the most distinctive-looking, elusive, rare, and endangered types of bear. For a long time, some scientists classified giant pandas in the raccoon family, but DNA analysis has since disproved this assertion.

Pandas are native to southwest China, where they inhabit temperate forests high in the southwest mountains. They subsist mainly on bamboo, a diet with so little nutritional value that an adult eats roughly 20 to 40 pounds (9–18 kg) of bamboo a day, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and considerably more when feeding on watery bamboo shoots.

Their pseudo thumb (enlarged wrist bone) functions as an opposable thumb, which helps them split the bamboo. Besides, their gut is especially adapted for their diet; it is covered with thick mucus that protects them from splinters.

Newborn pandas are blind, hairless and tiny — about 100 grams, roughly 1/900th of their mother’s weight. Adult males reach about 85–125 kg (190–275 lb) and females about 70–100 kg (155–220 lb). Despite the bulk, they are excellent tree climbers. The giant panda was moved from Endangered to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 2016 after China’s national census counted 1,864 wild pandas, a 17% increase over the preceding decade.

Unlike most types of bears, giant pandas don’t hibernate. During winter, they migrate to lower and warmer elevations; during summer, they move to higher and cooler elevations.

See Related: These 13 Animals Have the Best Hearing in the World

3. Sun Bears

Sun bears also have another moniker, honey bears, thanks to their love for honey. Very little is known about this ancient species, which hasn’t changed much. Sun bears live a secluded life deep in Southeast Asia’s dense lowland forests.

The ‘Sun bear’ name comes from the distinctive white or golden patch on their chest, which fables represent as a symbol of a rising sun. Sun bears are not the ancestors of the black bears, a claim this article previously repeated. Molecular phylogenies place the sun bear as the sister taxon to the American and Asiatic black bears — a cousin sharing a common ancestor, not a forebear. The sun bear is also by far the smallest of the eight species, well under half the weight of an American black bear.

Sun bears are distinguished by their flexible snouts and long tongues, adapted from extracting termites. Of all the breeds of bears, they have the biggest canines adapted for tearing meat. They also have exceptionally long claws.

Very little is known about how they behave in the wild. They are nocturnal; they navigate through the forest at night, eating berries, fruits, roots, and small animals. Besides, they are known for their exceptional climbing skills.

Their habitats are degrading due to deforestation; poachers hunt them for their fur and body parts; farmers exterminate them because they often destroy food crops, and females are killed so their young ones can be turned into pets. 

See Related: What Attracts Bears?

4. Andean Bear

The Andean bear, or the Spectacled bear, is the only bear species native to South America. Spectacled bears get their name from the ‘spectacle’ marking on their faces. Each bear has a unique marking, so its distinctive look can identify each one.

Generally, spectacled bears are shy, elusive, and peaceful; they avoid contact with humans. They are also solitary, although they can congregate when their preferred food items are plentiful.

The Andean bear is the last surviving member of the subfamily Tremarctinae — the “short-faced bears” — which makes it the closest living relative of the extinct Pleistocene giant short-faced bear and the Florida spectacled bear. Every other bear alive belongs to the subfamily Ursinae or, in the panda’s case, Ailuropodinae.

Although adapted to a carnivorous diet, most spectacled bears now prefer a herbivorous diet. Currently, the population of Andean bears is small in most areas, and they face a lot of pressure due to habitat degradation and loss as well as hunting.

5. North American Black Bear

Black bears are the most common and best-known bears in North America. They live in forests, swamps, and mountains but can leave their habitats when searching for food. Black bears are also excellent tree climbers and swimmers.

The North American Black bears are omnivorous; they can change their diet based on the season and location. It is one of only two bear species the IUCN rates Least Concern — the other being the brown bear — and with an estimated 800,000 or more animals it is the most numerous bear on Earth. IUCN lists under the least-concern species.

6. Short-Faced Bear

Although the Short-Faced bear is now extinct, it makes our list of different bears. During the ice age, short-faced bears thrived in North America; they were the most powerful and the largest land carnivores.

Standing, a large male reached roughly 10–11 feet. Body-mass estimates from limb-bone measurements put males at about 800–1,000 kg (1,760–2,200 lb) and females at 300–400 kg — enormous, but not the “several thousand pounds” often repeated online.

The rest of its popular reputation has not survived scrutiny. A 2010 study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology pointedly titled “Demythologizing Arctodus simus, the ‘short-faced’ long-legged and predaceous bear that never was” found that its legs were not unusually long for a bear of its size, that its face was not unusually short, and that analysis of its skull and teeth shows no adaptation to bone-cracking or hypercarnivory. Its morphology sits closest to today’s omnivorous bears. The picture of a hyper-fast running predator that bullied other carnivores off their kills is a 20th-century reconstruction the fossil evidence does not support.

7. Asiatic Black Bear

Asiatic Black bears are black-colored, medium-sized bears native to southern Asia. They have a white chest, and thus, they are also referred to as the moon bears.

Asiatic bears feed on a varied diet, including insects, bee nests, fruits, invertebrates, and carrion. Occasionally, they prey on domestic stock, although little is known about their hunting in the wild.

 Asian black bears are victims of the bear bile trade. IUCN lists them as vulnerable.

8. Brown Bear

Brown bears inhabit the mountains and forests of Europe, Asia, and northern North America. They are solitary and omnivorous but congregate when food is plentiful.

For instance, there are dramatic gatherings of brown bears in Alaskan fishing spots during summer when salmons swim upstream for spawning. Brown bears consume a massive amount of food in the fall, up to about 90 pounds a day, before denning for the winter — not the spring, which is when they emerge. This autumn gorging is called hyperphagia. Bear denning is not true hibernation either: a denning bear’s body temperature drops only a few degrees and it can wake and move, unlike a deep hibernator such as a chipmunk (see when chipmunks come out of hibernation).

While brown bears are apex predators, most of their diet consists of roots, fruit, berries, leaves, and nuts. Even though they are huge, brown bears are incredibly fast. They can run up to 30 mph.

However, brown bears’ sizes vary depending on their geographic location and food availability. The largest brown bears inhabit Russia and the coastal area of Alaska; they rival polar bears in size. Brown bears that inhabit the interior areas of North America and Europe are usually much smaller. Even interior brown bears weigh 400 to 700 pounds, significantly outweighing carnivores like gray wolves (see our wolves size comparison).

9. Sloth Bear

Sloth bears get their name from a superficial resemblance to sloths — long curved claws, a dusty-black shaggy coat and a short-haired pale muzzle. The two are not related, and of the pair it is the bear that is dangerous (see are sloths dangerous?).

Adult sloth bears lack the two upper central incisors — a gap they use to suck termites and ants straight out of a nest, audibly, from up to a metre away. And because of their diet of fruit and insects, they have smaller molars and premolars than other bears. They, however, have huge canines that they use for defense.

Adult sloth bears’ feet are turned inwards for maximum digging efficiency, and their strong hook-like claws allow them to dig for termites and climb trees.

Sloth bears don’t hibernate during winter because they have food all year round. And because they don’t suffer food fluctuations, they are smaller than other types of bears.

These bears inhabit dry and moist tall grasslands in India, Sri Lanka, southern Nepal, and Sri Lanka. In India, sloth bears were for centuries taken as cubs and trained as “dancing bears”; the practice was outlawed in 1972 and the last dancing bear in India was surrendered in 2009. Because they are adorable shaggy creatures, sometimes the British military kept them as pets.

However, sloth bears are responsible for more human injuries than any other bear, but the framing matters: attacks are overwhelmingly defensive close-range surprise encounters in dense scrub, not unprovoked predation. A sloth bear that hears you coming will almost always leave. Population estimates put fewer than 20,000 in the wild after a decline of 30–49% over the past 30 years, driven by poaching and habitat loss.

10. Grizzly Bear

Grizzly bears are a North American brown bear subspecies. They are usually brown with grizzled or white-tipped fur. But they can also be grey or black; what distinguishes them from other types of bears is the hump on their shoulders.

Grizzly bears thrive in arctic tundra, open plains, subalpine meadows and dense forest. They are solitary by default, but will tolerate each other at close range where food is concentrated — the famous salmon-run gatherings at Alaskan falls are the clearest example.

Much of the diet of grizzly bears consists of roots, leaves, and fruit. This is despite them being powerful apex predators. Besides, grizzly bears cover a massive home range, about 600 square miles, so they require a lot of space

Most grizzly bears live in Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta. The often-quoted “50,000 then, under 2,000 now” comparison mixes two different geographies and this article previously repeated the error. The historic estimate of about 50,000 grizzlies refers to the contiguous United States before European settlement; the current figure of roughly 1,900–2,000 also refers to the lower 48. Across North America as a whole there are still about 55,000 grizzlies — roughly 30,000 in Alaska and 21,000–25,000 in Canada. The lower-48 population is therefore under 4% of the continental total, which is the real story: a near-total regional loss inside a species that remains globally Least Concern.

The lower-48 population has been recovering since 1975, when grizzlies were listed as threatened — not endangered — under the US Endangered Species Act. 

See Related: Grizzly Bear vs. Black Bear

11. Marsican Brown Bear

The Marsican brown bear survives only in the Central Apennines of Italy, centred on the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. The long-quoted figure of “about 50 left” is now out of date: the first population-wide genetic census, completed in 2025 under Italy’s DigitAP project, surveyed roughly 6,000 km², analysed 854 hair samples and estimated 81 bears (95% confidence interval 73–88) — 43 females and 38 males, with about 56 inside the historic park core. Field monitoring in 2025 also recorded 7 females with at least 16 cubs. They are notably even-tempered around people and keep to themselves.

Male Marsican brown bears weigh roughly 140–200 kg and females about 100–140 kg — small for a brown bear, and far below their Alaskan cousins. Their diet mainly consists of berries, but they also eat insects and petite animals like chickens. Their superb sense of smell supports their food search.

Typically, Marsican brown bears wake up from their hibernation slumber several times.

See Related: Types of Terrain You Need to Know

12. Tibetan Blue Bear

The Tibetan Blue bear is native to the Eastern Tibetan Plateau and is a brown bear subspecies. It is among the least-seen bears in the world and is very rarely photographed, but it is not extinct — camera traps have confirmed it in Nepal, and it persists on the Tibetan Plateau.

Samples of fur and bone have been found in the West, which suggests that Tibetan Blue bears inhabited the West in the past.

They prefer living in mountainous regions near the tree line, and little is known about their behaviour because sightings are so rare. A note on its status: the IUCN has not assessed this subspecies, and the parent species, the brown bear, is Least Concern — so “critically endangered”, which this article previously stated, is not an IUCN classification the Tibetan blue bear holds. It is, however, listed on CITES Appendix I, and bear-bile demand drives illegal hunting. The bears feed on pikas and other small mammals and may also eat pine nuts.

What to Do If You Meet a Bear (the Advice Differs by Species)

Most “types of bears” guides never mention the one thing a reader in bear country actually needs, and the correct response is opposite for the two species North Americans are most likely to meet. This is the U.S. National Park Service’s guidance.

• Bear encounter or bluff charge: do not run or drop to the ground merely because a bear approaches. Stay calm, give it space, and follow the National Park Service guidance for the situation.
• Brown/grizzly bear attack: the National Park Service advises leaving your pack on and playing dead: lie on your stomach, clasp your hands behind your neck, and spread your legs. Stay still until the bear leaves. If the attack persists, fight back vigorously.
• Black bear attack: do not play dead. Try to escape to a secure place such as a car or building. If escape is impossible, fight back with available objects, concentrating on the face and muzzle.
• A bear attacks in your tent or after stalking you: do not play dead; fight back.
• Prepare before entering bear country: learn how to carry and use bear spray and follow local park guidance.

Do not choose a response from a rhyme or fur colour alone. Black bears can have brown or cinnamon fur, and an encounter is not the same as an attack. Read the National Park Service bear safety guidance before your trip and follow local park advice. Our grizzly bear vs black bear comparison explains identification differences.

FAQs

Related Resources

• Types of Deer Around the World
• Endangered Species in California You Need to Know
• Types of Bears from Around the World
• Largest National Parks in the World

Bears aren’t the only animals with a fierce reputation — find out why lions are called the king of the jungle, and the surprising answer to which animal has two feet but can’t walk.

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