Living Beings
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Species · Ursus
Brown Bear
Ursus arctos
Brown bears are large omnivores with a prominent shoulder hump and powerful forelimbs. Their diets and seasonal routines change with the foods …
Tremarctos ornatus 165975083.jpg · Resized and converted to WebP for display. AI-generated illustration. Jonathan Candil Méndez · CC BY 4.0
Field guide · species
Andean Bear
Tremarctos ornatus
The Andean bear, also called the spectacled bear, is the living bear native to South America. It connects forests and high mountain vegetation through a flexible, largely plant-based diet rather than the hunting lifestyle often associated with large carnivores.
Public research profile · final editorial review pending.
Tree of lifeScientific lineage
- LifeLife
- DomainEukaryota
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderCarnivora
- FamilyUrsidae
- GenusTremarctos
- SpeciesTremarctos ornatus
Advanced classification
Complete source lineage, including intermediate ranks. The standard view uses Life and the eight principal ranks.
- cellular organisms cellular root
- Eukaryota domain
- Opisthokonta clade
- Metazoa kingdom
- Eumetazoa clade
- Bilateria clade
- Deuterostomia clade
- Chordata phylum
- Craniata subphylum
- Vertebrata clade
- Gnathostomata clade
- Teleostomi clade
- Euteleostomi clade
- Sarcopterygii superclass
- Dipnotetrapodomorpha clade
- Tetrapoda clade
- Amniota clade
- Mammalia class
- Theria clade
- Eutheria clade
- Boreoeutheria clade
- Laurasiatheria superorder
- Carnivora order
- Caniformia suborder
- Ursidae family
- Tremarctos genus
- Tremarctos ornatus species
Physical traits
Pale facial and chest markings vary between individuals and may suggest spectacles. The coat is usually dark, although brownish individuals occur.
Habitat and range
Cloud forest, montane woodland and adjacent high-elevation vegetation provide different foods through the year. Habitat use can change as fruits and other resources become available.
Diet and nutrition
Fruit, bromeliads and other plant material are important foods. Animal matter is also eaten, making this bear an omnivore rather than a strict herbivore.
Behavior and activity
Individuals are often solitary, but food concentrations can bring bears together. They climb trees to feed and rest, so their ecological space includes the canopy as well as the ground.
Reproduction and life cycle
Females care for dependent cubs. Some details of wild mating and reproductive timing remain less thoroughly documented than the species’ feeding ecology.
Geographic distribution
The Mammal Diversity Database v2.5 records this species in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina?.
Shared classification
Related species
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Framed for display
Species · Ailuropoda
Giant Panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
The giant panda is a bamboo-specialist bear of Chinese mountain forests. Its familiar black-and-white appearance conceals an unusual feeding strategy: a member …
Framed for display
Species · Helarctos
Sun Bear
Helarctos malayanus
The sun bear is a small tropical forest bear of Southeast Asia. Curved claws, climbing ability and a long mobile tongue help …
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Species · Melursus
Sloth Bear
Melursus ursinus
The sloth bear is an insect-feeding specialist of the Indian subcontinent. Despite its name it is a bear, not a sloth, and …
Evidence
Sources
- Tremarctos ornatus · NCBI Taxonomy ↗www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Tremarctos ornatus · Biological reference ↗www.mammaldiversity.org
- Tremarctos ornatus · Biological reference ↗animaldiversity.org
Connected life
Relationships
No reviewed ecological connections in the collection yet.
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