Asian Black Bear

The scientific name for the Asian Black bear or Asiatic Black bear is Ursus Thibetanus.

Other names include the ‘moon bear’ and ‘white-chested bear’.

The Asian Black bear has relatively large round ears and is covered in thick black course hair, with a band of white around its chest. They are mainly diurnal but if living near human habitation are sometimes nocturnal.

This bear has been known to attack humans for unknown reasons but is not likely to hunt people, due to them mainly being herbivorous.

Asian Black bears can be found around South Asia, north-east china, Korea, far eastern parts of Russia and some parts of Japan. However, due to excessive deforestation in this bear’s habitat the Asian black bear is now classed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN.

Visually many people get these bears mixed up with the American Black bear as they look similar. This is likely to be down to the fact that they have a common European ancestor, yet there is a slight genetic difference.

The Asian black bear is said to be a very close ancestor to many extinct bears. There are quite a few Asian Black Bear subspecies including Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus (which is a more reddish colour) and Ursus thibetanus ussuricus (which is the biggest subspecies).

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