These aren’t the teddy bears you played with as a kid.
Most of us will usually only see them in zoos, and these largest bear species in the world are definitely worth seeing.
You probably won’t find all bears in all zoos; your best chance of seeing bears may be in its home country.
tontantravel / Flickr
The sun bear is native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia.
In Malaysia, it is known as the Malaysian honey bear due to its fondness for the sweet, sticky substance.
The sun bear is the smallest bear, weighing about 176 pounds and standing about five feet tall.
They have short black fur with light colored muzzles, with the white area extending above the eyes.
Chi Roi / Flickr
The giant panda is the cute and cuddly model.
He is a roly-poly with a white face and body surrounded by black fur around his neck, legs, and ears.
Unlike other bears, the panda is primarily vegetarian, with bamboo making up 99% of its diet.
The panda is native to the mountains of south-central China, particularly Sichuan province.
These chubby bears have a girth 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, is native to the Indian subcontinent.
It is a nocturnal insectivorous bear with a lower lip designed to suck in insects.
The sloth bear is leaner than the Asiatic black bear, with longer fur, a pale muzzle with a bulbous muzzle and white claws.
They weigh up to 290 pounds and can stand up to 6 feet tall.
They are known to attack humans who invade their territory.
9. Asian Black Bear
Asiatic black bears are not very fond of humans, which is understandable since humans hunt them for body parts and traditional medicines.
They are found in mountainous regions of Asia, from Taiwan and northeast China to the northern Indian subcontinent and the Russian Far East.
The Asiatic black bear is also known as the moon bear or the white-breasted bear due to the V-shaped or half-moon shaped white fur on its chest.
It is a medium-sized bear (average 6 feet tall and 300 pounds) that resembles prehistoric bears.
8. Spectacled Bear
The spectacled bear gets its name because the rings around its eyes make it look like it’s wearing glasses.
A medium-sized bear, the spectacled bear is the only bear native to South America.
Although considered a meat eater, meat only makes up about 5% of the spectacled bear’s diet.
Its coat is usually black, but can also be brown or reddish hues.
It is found in the cloud forests of the Andes, 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 common from Alaska to Florida and from California to the Maritime provinces of Canada.
They prefer forest habitats and have sometimes attached themselves to human communities due to the easy availability of food – they are dump 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 where it can be found in the mountainous regions of northern Europe, but as far south as the Pyrenees.
The largest population is found in Siberian forests.
The bear sports long shaggy hair in different shades of brown.
The Latin name for the grizzly, Ursus horriblis, means “terrifying bear”. The grizzly bear is also known as the silver-tipped bear because of its gray-tipped hair, and sometimes as the North American brown bear because they are the same species.
Whatever you call it, it’s fierce and huge – males weigh nearly 800 pounds and stand over 6 feet tall.
Grizzly bears range in color from blond to nearly black, but are generally brown.
4. Ussouri Brown Bear
nAok0/Flickr
The Ussuri brown bear is one of the largest brown bears and is sometimes known as the black grizzly.
Their population is declining in northeast 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 sometimes turned into dinner by Siberian tigers.
3. Kamchatka brown bear
The Kamchatka brown bear, the largest bear in Eurasia, is found primarily in the Kamchatka region of Russia and surrounding islands, as well as Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. It is a large bear, sometimes measuring up to 9 feet and weighing nearly 1,500 pounds.
It is believed to be the ancestor of the Kodiak bear.
They rarely attack humans, but are trophies for Russian hunters.
2. Kodiak Bear
The Kodiak bear, the largest brown bear in the world, is native to the Kodiak Islands in Alaska.
Big doesn’t begin to describe its size: some weigh 1,500 pounds and stand nearly 10 feet tall, 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 a few years.
1. Polar Bear
The polar bear, along with the Kodiak bear, is the largest bear species in the world.
He is the same size as the Kodiak Bear, except he is white instead of brown.
They are considered a vulnerable species as climate change is melting their habitat.