They are not the teddy bears you played with as a child.
However, most of us will only generally see them in zoos, and these largest bear species in the world are definitely worth a visit.
You probably won’t find all the bears in all the zoos; your best chance to see some bears may be in its home country.
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The sun bear is native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.
In Malaysia, it is known as the Malayan honey bear because of its fondness for the sweet sticky substance.
The sun bear is the smallest bear, and is about 176 pounds and about five feet tall.
They have short black fur with light colored muzzles, with the white area extending above the eyes.
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The giant panda is the model for cute and cuddly.
It is roly-poly with a white face and body surrounded by black fur around its neck, legs and ears.
Unlike other bears, the panda is essentially vegetarian, with bamboo making up 99 percent of its diet.
The panda is native to the mountains of south central China, particularly Sichuan Province.
These little bears have a circumference of up to six feet in diameter and weigh up to 250 pounds.
The sloth bear, which evolved from the brown bear in the Pleistocene period, is native to the Indian subcontinent.
It is a nocturnal insect-eating bear with a lower lip designed to suck the bugs in.
The sloth bear is lankier than the Asiatic black bear, with longer fur, a pale nose with bulbous noses and white claws.
They weigh up to 290 pounds and can be as tall as 6 feet.
They are known to attack people who invade their territory.
9. Asiatic black bear
Asian black bears are not very fond of humans, understandably so as man hunts them for body parts and traditional medicines.
They are found in mountainous regions in Asia, from Taiwan and northeast China to the northern Indian subcontinent and the Russian Far East.
The Asian black bear is also known as the moon bear or white-breasted bear because of the V-shaped or half-moon shaped white fur on their chest.
They are a medium-sized bear (6 feet tall and 300 pounds on average) that resemble prehistoric bears.
8. Spectacled bear
The spectacled bear got its name because rings around its eyes make it look like it is wearing spectacles.
A medium-sized bear, the spectacled bear is the only bear native to South America.
Although it is considered a meat eater, meat only makes up about 5 percent of the spectacular bear’s diet.
Its fur is mostly black, but it can also have brown or reddish tones.
It is found in the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains, mainly in the northern and western regions of South America.
7. American black bear
The American black bear is the smallest bear species on the North American continent, but it is the most commonly found anywhere from Alaska to Florida and from California to the Canadian Maritimes.
They prefer wooded habitat and sometimes attach themselves to human communities because food is readily available – they are the scavengers of litter.
The American black bear evolved from the sun bear thousands of years ago.
6. Eurasian brown bear
The Eurasian brown bear is also known as the European brown bear where it can be found in the mountainous areas of northern Europe, but as far south as the Pyrenees.
The largest population is found in the forests of Siberia.
The bear sports long shaggy hair in various shades of brown.
The grizzly bear’s Latin name, Ursus horriblis, means “scary bear.” The grizzly bear is also called the silver front bear because of its gray front hair, and sometimes as the North American brown bear, as it is the same species.
Whatever you call it, it’s fierce and huge—males weigh nearly 800 pounds and stand over 6 feet tall.
Grizzlies vary in color from yellow to almost black, but are typically brown.
4. Ussuri brown bear
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The Ussuri brown bear is one of the largest brown bears, and is sometimes called the black grizzly.
Their population is declining in northeastern China where they are hunted for body parts, but they are considered national monuments in North Korea.
They have been known to attack and even kill humans, while they themselves are turned into dinner by Siberian tigers.
3. Kamchatka brown bear
The Kamchatka brown bear, the largest bear in Eurasia, is found mainly in the Kamchatka region of Russia and the surrounding islands as well as Alaska’s Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. He is one big bear, sometimes standing as tall as 9 feet and weighing nearly 1,500 pounds.
It is believed to be the ancestor of the Kodiak bear.
They rarely attack people, but they are a trophy bear for Russian hunters.
2. Kodiak bear
The Kodiak bear, the largest brown bear in the world, is native to Alaska’s Kodiak islands.
Big doesn’t begin to describe its size: some weigh 1,500 pounds and stand nearly 10 feet tall when standing upright, even though they eat the same foods as other brown bears.
They are usually brown but can be golden; young bears have a white ring around their necks for some years.
1. A polar bear
The polar bear, along with the Kodiak bear, is the largest bear species in the world.
It is the same size as the Kodiak bear, only it is white instead of brown.
They are considered a vulnerable species as climate change is melting their habitat.