These are not the teddy bears you played with as a child.
Some look cute and cuddly but these giant creatures are definitely not.
Most of us often see them in zoos, and these giant bears of the world are definitely worth a visit.
You may not find every bear in every store; your best chance to see bears may be in their own country.
tontantravel / Flickr
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 love for the sweet dessert.
The polar bear is the smallest bear, weighing about 176 pounds and about five feet tall.
They have short black fur and light-colored muzzles, with white extending above the eyes.
Chi King / Flickr
The giant panda is the epitome of cuteness and fearlessness.
It is roly-poly with a white face and body surrounded by black fur on its neck, legs and ears.
Unlike other bears, the panda is very picky about food, and bamboo provides 99 percent of its food.
The panda is native to the mountains of south-central China, particularly Sichuan Province.
These giant bears can reach six feet in diameter and weigh up to 250 pounds.
The sloth bear, which evolved from the brown bear during the Pleistocene, is native to the Indian subcontinent.
A bear eats insects at night with its lower lip designed to suck up bugs.
The grizzly bear is skinnier than the Asian black bear, has long fur, a pale muzzle and short muzzles with white claws.
They weigh up to 290 pounds and can grow up to 6 feet tall.
They are known to attack people who invade their territory.
9. Asian black bear
Asian black bears are not very fond of humans, understandably since they are hunted by humans for body parts and traditional medicine.
It is found in mountainous areas of Asia, from Taiwan and eastern China to northern India and the Russian Far East.
The Asian black bear is also called the moon bear or white bear because of the V or half-moon shaped white fur on their chest.
A large bear (about 6 feet tall and 300 pounds) like the ancient bears.
The spectacled bear got its name because of the rings in its eyes that look like they are wearing glasses.
A large bear, the spectacled bear is the only bear in South America.
Although considered a carnivore, meat makes up only 5 percent of the grizzly bear’s diet.
Its fur is usually black, but it can also be brown or red.
It can be found in the wilds of the Andes Mountains, especially in the north and west of South America.
7. American black bear
The American black bear is the smallest species of bear on the North American continent, but it is commonly found anywhere from Alaska to Florida and from California to Canada’s Maritime Provinces.
They like wooded areas and sometimes stick to human settlements because of easy access to food – they are garbage scavengers.
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 which can be found in the mountainous areas of northern Europe, and as far south as the Pyrenees.
The largest population can be found in Siberian forests.
The bear sports long white hair with varying shades of brown.
The Latin name of the grizzly bear, Ursus horriblis, means “terrible bear.” The grizzly is also known as the silver bear because of its brown hair, and sometimes as the North American brown bear, because it is the same species.
Whatever you call it, it’s scary and big – males can weigh up to 800 pounds and stand over 6 feet tall.
Grizzlies vary in color from brown to almost black, but are usually brown.
4. Ussuri brown bear
nAok0 / Flickr
The Ussuri brown bear is one of the largest brown bears, and is sometimes known as the black grizzly.
The population is dwindling in eastern China where body parts are sought, but they are considered national relics in North Korea.
They are known to attack and kill people, while they sometimes become dinner for Siberian tigers.
3. Kamchatka brown bear
The Kamchatka brown bear, the largest bear in Eurasia, is commonly found in the Kamchatka region of Russia and nearby islands as well as Alaska’s Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. One giant bear, sometimes standing 9 feet tall and weighing nearly 1,500 pounds.
It is believed to be the ancestor of the Kodiak bear.
It rarely attacks humans, but it is a trophy bear for Russian hunters.
2. Kodiak bear
The Kodiak bear, the world’s largest brown bear, is native to the Kodiak Islands in Alaska.
Big doesn’t begin to describe their size: some weigh 1,500 pounds and stand nearly 10 feet tall when standing upright, although they eat the same food as other brown bears.
It is usually brown but can be golden; young bears have a white ring around their neck for several years.
The polar bear, along with the Kodiak bear, is the largest bear species in the world.
It is about the same size as the Kodiak bear, only white instead of brown.
They are born on land but spend most of their lives on the sea ice, with seals making up most of their diet.
They are called vulnerable species because climate change has melted their habitat.
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ANCHORAGE – In Alaska’s annual battle of the weights, a salmon-chomping bruin named 747 – like a jetliner – has emerged as the most impressive fat.
The bear, one of more than 2,200 brown bears that roam Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, won Tuesday after a week of online voting in what has been become an international sensation: Fat Bear Week.
“This year he’s put on a lot of pounds. He looks like he’s fat enough to sleep in July but continues to eat until he’s on his stomach at the end of September.” said the park.
Fat Bear Week features 12 bears facing each other in shapely walls.
Bear fans compared the photos and voted online for their favorites from last Wednesday through Tuesday night.
For people, Fat Bear Week is a fun way to learn, from a distance, about nature and Alaska.
Katmai bears can live to more than 1,000 pounds (453 kg) from summer meals.
That’s what Fat Bear Week is about “survival of the fattest,” as the Park Service puts it.
Katmai, a 4 million-acre park spread over mountains, lakes, rivers and the coast, is famous for having the largest population of brown bears in the world, the coast of grizzlies.
In Katmai, the Brooks River is a major feeding area for brown bears.
There, bears congregate in the summer and fall to slip from salmon to swim upstream to feed, with much of the activity captured by the web. website operated by explore.org, a Fat Bear Week partner.
This year, the river was more of a bear paradise than usual, thanks to the record salmon run, said Naomi Doak, a communicator in Katmai.
“The combination of more salmon runs and less people, this really gave the river over to the bears,” he said.