/r/bears

Photograph via snooOG

This is the home to all eight species of bears - American Black Bears, Brown Bears, Polar Bears, Asiatic Black (Moon) Bears, Sun Bears, Sloth Bears, Giant Pandas, and Spectacled (Andean) Bears.

"Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear's days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours, and was poured from the same First Fountain. And whether he at last goes to our stingy heaven or no, he has terrestrial immortality. His life not long, not short, knows no beginning, no ending."

~ John Muir


What kind of bear is best?

This is the home to all eight species of bears - American Black Bears, Brown Bears, Polar Bears, Asiatic Black (Moon) Bears, Sun Bears, Sloth Bears, Giant Pandas, and Spectacled (Andean) Bears.


Read our Community Rules!

Be excellent to one another, be respectful, be kind, be one with the bears.


Set your own flair by clicking (edit flair) next to your username!


Information

Useful Resources


Did You Know?

Six species of bears are classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List, even the least concern species, Brown Bears, are at risk of extirpation in some countries.

Find out how you can help!


Some Bear Videos


Bear Subreddits

Related Subreddits

/r/bears

52,166 Subscribers

476

Is it really that dangerous to hug a baby bear? (excluding the mother) I'm curious as I can't see how a small thing like this would be a threat to a grown human.

72 Comments
2024/11/07
05:11 UTC

529

Fat bear doing fat bear things

Taylor Creek 11/5. Its feeding time

13 Comments
2024/11/06
03:19 UTC

302

bear_irl

7 Comments
2024/11/04
17:24 UTC

635

Ussuri brown bear having a nice snooze

17 Comments
2024/11/03
12:01 UTC

123

Portage Alaska

5 Comments
2024/11/03
02:33 UTC

175

This was a few weeks ago in my garage here in Central Florida …I had 2 visitors ….a cub and her mama !

9 Comments
2024/11/01
22:47 UTC

225

A sloth bear enjoys a Halloween snack at an International Animal Rescue centre in India. Its nose was damaged by cruel practices inflicted by poachers who put the animals on show as ‘“dancing bears”.

4 Comments
2024/11/01
12:55 UTC

273

399’s offspring Spirit he or she as of summer 2024

Looks large enough hopefully to make it thru hibernation

4 Comments
2024/10/30
19:11 UTC

212

Someone wanted my pumpkin 🎃

9 Comments
2024/10/30
03:53 UTC

343

Standing bear enjoying a tasty salmon wrap!

1 Comment
2024/10/29
15:15 UTC

267

The Pumpkin Thief

I bought some pumpkins Thursday (there was a deal!). I thought they’d look good outside the door and when they started to go soft, I’d put them in the woods for the wildlife. Well, someone thought they’d get ahead of the game. It’s a long video but well worth watching to the end to see what happens!

19 Comments
2024/10/26
17:59 UTC

623

Heartbroken RIP Sweet Queen 👑399🩷

You will be missed.

24 Comments
2024/10/23
23:16 UTC

214

Carpathian brown bear in the mountains of Romania

2 Comments
2024/10/23
19:43 UTC

352

RIP 399 :(

https://www.nps.gov/grte/learn/news/grizzly-bear-399-fatally-struck-by-vehicle-in-snake-river-canyon.htm

Absolutely heartbreaking. I’ve been following her from afar for years. This has just been a terrible year for bear lovers. I hope her miracle yearling makes it.

26 Comments
2024/10/23
19:11 UTC

335

Yellowstone Grizzly sighting

Ran into a grizzly while hiking in Yellowstone. Almost had to change my pants.

6 Comments
2024/10/23
07:46 UTC

942

Me and the boys yacht shopping on a Friday night

15 Comments
2024/10/22
23:08 UTC

113

Ready for winter!

Caught this black bear walking down the driveway early morning. Looks like it’s packing on the winter pounds

7 Comments
2024/10/21
00:20 UTC

299

Large male Grizzly [OC] [Canada] [@bodkinsbestphotography]

16 Comments
2024/10/20
23:17 UTC

1,654

A polar bear finds the perfect spot for a peaceful summer nap.

9 Comments
2024/10/20
18:57 UTC

62

Are North American brown bears really that much more dangerous than Eurasian ones? And do they require much more pristine untouched land?

I sometimes see news about a possibility of reintroduction of the grizzly bear into California, yet the comments always say that how it'd be so dangerous, they'd kill every person they see, all the hikers would go missing and their DNA would be found in bear poop etc. Is this based on Hollywood movies/video games like Red Dead Redemption/Old West legends or does it have any basis in actual bear behavior?

Another one is that the current Californian population density is too high and tha the landscape is too altered and changed to support a breeding population of brown bears.

In my country(Türkiye), brown bears are common across the entire Northern part including just 10 km from the capital city Ankara, which has significantly more population density and more human altered landscape than California(and it's not even close), and I've never heard of them attacking people, they just sometimes attack the beekeepers' beehives.

They are probably smaller than the large salmon bears of Alaska and British Columbia, but they're actually same/close in size to inland grizzlies of North America, like those in Yellowstone, with an average male being 250 kg.

Are Eurasian brown bears more adapted to coexisting with humans, or is the aggression of the North American brown bear just overplayed by movies/games and the frontier folklore?

27 Comments
2024/10/20
11:44 UTC

23

I want to volunteer with a sanctuary for bears where I can be near them, perhaps get some education along with it

Ill travel, I do love the black bears but ANY species will do. Im 68 - female - and just can’t do heavy lifting.

17 Comments
2024/10/20
06:41 UTC

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