Yapping about my favorite bears 4

I'm back with another silly baby ! And he's as special as the rest of our crew.

Today's vistor is quite unknown actually...he gets mistaken for black bears a lot because he's as chubby and cute, its thr andean bear!

The Andean bear is the only bear species native to South America, they live along the Andes, from western Venezuela through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru into Bolivia, and that's how they got their name !

These guys are actually also called `spectacled bears` because many have pale cream or whitish markings around their eyes, giving them the appearance of wearing glasses :]

The markings are highly variable! some bears have a full facial mask, while others have only a couple of pale patches or lines across their faces !

In fact, their markings are distinctive enough that researchers can sometimes use them to tell individual bears apart, no two andean bears share the exact face markings, like fingerprints too in a way.

The big boys who are almost 2 meters tall have strong claws and are unique in a weird way, they only have 13 pairs of ribs, while all other species of bears have 14, the reason is not quite known to this day.

They also construct platforms in trees ! They'll break or bend branches to create platforms where they can rest, sleep, eat, or watch their surroundings. They can also make beds on the ground ^^

Andean bears were actually observed being mostly vegeterian, while they aren't strictly herbivorous, their diet mostly contains berries, nuts, and fruits, they rarely go for prey and its mostly carrion when doing so

Their lineage split from the lineage leading to modern ursine bears millions of years ago, meaning they aren't classified as part of the "ursinae" family, known as brown bears, polar bears, and black bears.

Historically, theyre the closest bear species to the extinct giant short faced bears of North America.

The giant short faced bears weren't exactly their direct ancestors, but both belonged to the same ancient 'tremarctine' lineage.

The IUCN currently lists the Andean bear as Vulnerable though, meaning they face a high risk of extinction in the wild.

One of their biggest problems is habitat fragmentation. Agriculture, livestock grazing, roads, mining, oil development and other human activities break their habitat into smaller pieces

● and WE love their cubs