The 8 Bear Species of the World

Last updated: October 11, 2026

Bears are famous all over the world, so you might expect dozens of kinds. In fact, there are only eight. Three of them live in North America, one lives in South America, and the other four live in Asia.

Bears of North America

1. American black bear

The bear most Americans are likely to meet. It's the most widespread bear in North America, found across much of the US, Canada and Mexico, and it's also the smallest of North America's three bears.

Don't let the name fool you: black bears can be black, brown, cinnamon, blond and more. They're excellent tree climbers, and most of what they eat is plants.

2. Brown bear (including the grizzly)

Brown bears live in North America, Europe and Asia. In North America, many of them are called grizzlies, but a grizzly isn't a separate species. It's a brown bear, Ursus arctos.

Look for the big shoulder hump: it's muscle, not fat, and it makes brown bears powerful diggers. The giants of the family are the Kodiak bears, which live on islands off southern Alaska. They're some of the largest brown bears in the world, comparable in size to polar bears.

Want to tell a grizzly from a black bear? Read Black Bear vs. Grizzly: How to Tell Them Apart.

3. Polar bear

The bear of the Arctic sea ice. Wild polar bears live in just five countries: Canada, the United States (Alaska), Russia, Greenland and Norway. They spend so much of their lives on the sea ice and in the water that, under US law, they count as marine mammals, along with whales, seals and sea otters.

Fun fact: under that white-looking fur, a polar bear's skin is black.

The only bear of South America

4. Spectacled bear (Andean bear)

The spectacled bear lives in the Andes mountains, from Venezuela south to Bolivia, and it's the only bear native to South America. It's named for the pale markings around its eyes that can look like glasses. Every bear's markings are a little different, a bit like a fingerprint, and scientists use them to tell bears apart.

Spectacled bears build platforms in trees to eat and sleep on, and they're thought to be among the most "talkative" bears, even making cooing sounds. They also have a famous relative: the giant short-faced bear, an extinct Ice Age giant and one of the largest bears that ever lived.

Bears of Asia

5. Asiatic black bear (moon bear)

It looks a lot like an American black bear, but it's a separate species. Its fur is longer and shaggier, and nearly every Asiatic black bear has a cream-colored, crescent-shaped mark on its chest. That's where its nickname, the "moon bear," comes from. Its range stretches across forests in southern Asia, from Afghanistan all the way to Japan.

6. Sun bear

The smallest bear in the world. Adult males weigh only about 60 to 110 pounds (27 to 50 kg). Sun bears live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia and have a very long tongue for slurping up insects and honey. Like the moon bear, a sun bear has a light-colored mark on its chest, which is how the two got their matching nicknames.

7. Sloth bear

Despite the name, sloth bears have nothing to do with sloths. An early naturalist thought they were related, and the name stuck. They live mainly in India and Sri Lanka and feed largely on termites and ants. They can close their nostrils to keep out dust and insects while they suck bugs out of their nests.

Sloth bear mothers are also the only bears that routinely carry their cubs around on their backs. And while black bears usually run away or climb a tree when threatened, a sloth bear is more likely to stand its ground.

8. Giant panda

Yes, it's a true bear. Giant pandas live in the mountains of China and spend 12 to 14 hours a day eating bamboo. To hold it, they use a "pseudo thumb": an enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad. Find out what the other bears eat in What Do Bears Eat?

Not bears, despite the name

• Koalas are marsupials, like kangaroos. Their babies grow in a pouch. The "koala bear" name is just a mistake that stuck.
• Red pandas aren't bears either. Scientists have moved them around over the years, and today they're placed in a family of their own. They're not closely related to giant pandas.

And here's a twist: bears are more closely related to dogs than to cats. They belong to the "dog-like" group of carnivores, along with dogs, raccoons and seals.

Quick guide

Eight species, and somehow people still call the koala one of us. Thanks, but no.