The Five Bears of Europe and Asia

One Endangered, Three Vulnerable to Extinction, Only One Stable

Jan 8, 2008

All bear species found in Asia are listed as vulnerable or endangered. Some of the small isolated populations of the brown bear in Europe are also at risk of extinction.

As with many of the large mammals of the world, bears in Europe and Asia face serious threat from habitat loss. Fragmentation of habitat puts the bears into contact with humans, increasing the risk of negative interaction. Conservation efforts are limited at this time. Habitat protection and restoration would aid not only the bears, but all forest dwelling species.

The Giant Panda

Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) remains an Endangered species after more than ten years of protection. This species is found only in south-central China and has been hard hit by habitat loss and degradation.

Fragmented patches of bamboo forest, their habitat and food source, is the biggest problem. Because bamboo has a cycle of flowering and dying off, this fragmentation is of great concern. In the past, the pandas would move on to bamboo patches that had not flowered. Now, there may not be enough bamboo forests in varying states of growth to support the bears.

Efforts have been made to link the network of panda reserve. But there are fewer than 2500 mature animals in the wild population and they are in small isolated breeding colonies of less than 250 mature animals each.

The Brown Bear

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) occurs throughout the world but some isolated populations are at risk in India, Pakistan and China as well as some parts of southern Europe and the Alps.

The Sun Bear

Sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are listed as Vulnerable and habitat loss plays a key role in this. Sun bears are victims of poaching for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine as well. Found in much of Southeast Asia, none of the sun bears’ range countries have any specific conservation measures in place. The large scale deforestation that plagues Southeast Asia, fueled by illegal logging and from slash and burn agricultural practices, creates the biggest danger for this species. The Bear Specialist Group is recommending that there be focused areas of protection called recovery zones as protecting all sun bear habitat is not possible.

The Sloth Bear

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) are found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Listed as Vulnerable with a population guessed to be somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 this bear also faces habitat loss and fragmentation And, while the use of sloth bears as dancing bears by the Kalandar tribespeople is fading, cubs are still taken for this purpose.

The Asiatic Black Bear

Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) occur widely in Southeast Asia and join the sloth and sun bears on the Vulnerable list. As with the other Asian bears, habitat loss and fragmentation combined with poaching for TCM trade are key threats. In some areas, cubs are still taken from the wild to become pets and bear baiting, although illegal continues in parts of the black bear’s range. Sport hunting is allowed in two of the bear’s range states and killing of nuisance bears is allowed in some areas as well.

On the plus side, reintroduction efforts are underway in some range states, using either captive bred or orphaned wild cubs.

The copyright of the article The Five Bears of Europe and Asia in Wildlife Conservation is owned by Dawn M. Smith. Permission to republish The Five Bears of Europe and Asia in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.