Animal
Asian black bear
The Asian black bear is a big black bear. It has a pale shape like a moon on its chest. It lives in forests across Asia. It eats fruit, nuts and bugs.
The Asian black bear is a black bear with a cream crescent on its chest, shaped like a new moon. It lives in forests and mountains from Iran and Pakistan across the Himalayas and Southeast Asia to China, Korea, Japan and the Russian Far East. It eats mostly plants, especially fruit and nuts, and in cold places it sleeps through the winter.
Ursus thibetanus is a forest bear ranging across southern and eastern Asia, from southeastern Iran to the Russian Far East and Japan. An opportunistic omnivore that relies on fruit and nuts, it is listed as Vulnerable (IUCN, assessed 2016), with an estimated 31 percent decline over 30 years driven by habitat loss and poaching for the trade in bear parts, especially gall bladders.
Photo: Dr. Raju Kasambe, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the Asian black bear
The Asian black bear is a big black bear.
It has a pale shape on its chest, like a moon. It has big round ears.
The Asian black bear is a large bear with a black coat and a white or cream crescent on its chest, shaped like a new moon. Scientists once placed it in a group called Selenarctos, which means "moon bear". Males weigh about 110 to 150 kilograms and females about 65 to 90 kilograms.
It has a big, rounded head with large ears, and it is a good climber. Most Asian black bears are black, but a few are brown, and a rare blond form has been found in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
Ursus thibetanus was once placed in its own genus, Selenarctos, meaning "moon bear" (IUCN). Seven subspecies are recognized, many supported as distinct genetic clades, including the Baluchistan bear of southeastern Iran and southern Pakistan.
Adults measure 120 to 180 centimeters in head-and-body length, with a tail of only 6.5 to 10.6 centimeters; males weigh about 110 to 150 kilograms and females 65 to 90 (Animal Diversity Web). The principal color phase is black with a white or cream crescent; brown and rare blond phases occur, and one wild hybrid with a sun bear has been reported from Cambodia. It is often confused with the sloth bear where their ranges overlap.
Quick facts
- Group
- Mammal
- Length
- 120 to 180 cm
- Weight
- 65 to 150 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- up to 30 years
Where it lives
Asian black bears live in forests in many parts of Asia.
Some live high in the mountains. Some live in warm forests, and some live where winters are snowy and cold.
Asian black bears live across a huge part of Asia: from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, along the Himalayas, through Southeast Asia and China, to Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Russian Far East. More than half of their range is in China.
They are forest bears. They live in many kinds of forest, from warm, wet tropical forest to cold mountain woodlands, from near sea level up to about 4,300 meters. Where their homes have plenty of fruit trees, there are more bears.
The IUCN lists 18 range countries, from southeastern Iran, where the small Baluchistan bear population lives, through Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Himalayas and mainland Southeast Asia to China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Taiwan and the Russian Far East. The range roughly follows the forests of southern and eastern Asia; China holds more than half of it.
Bears use broad-leaved and coniferous forests from near sea level to 4,300 meters, and one was camera-trapped at 4,500 meters in India's Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. In Iran and Pakistan they live in very dry steppe woodland, the driest landscape the species uses. Fruiting-tree density is a good predictor of where bears occur.
Continent
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Forests of southern and eastern Asia, from southeastern Iran and Pakistan along the Himalayas through Southeast Asia and China to the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Taiwan and the Russian Far East. Asian black bears live in only part of each country shown; in Iran and South Korea only small populations remain.
Places: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Japan and 10 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Japan, Taiwan, China, India, Thailand, Russia, Nepal, Cambodia and 18 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Asian black bears eat lots of plants.
They eat fresh leaves in spring, fruit and bugs in summer, and nuts like acorns in the fall. They climb trees to pick fruit.
Asian black bears are omnivores, but most of their food comes from plants. Their menu changes with the seasons: fresh shoots and leaves in spring, insects and fruit in summer, and nuts such as acorns, beechnuts and walnuts in the fall. In tropical forests, fruit is their main food all year.
They are good climbers. When feeding in a nut tree, a bear often breaks branches and piles them up in the treetop, making something that looks like a nest. Because they eat so much fruit, they probably help spread the seeds of many plants.
This opportunistic omnivore tracks seasonal foods: succulent vegetation in spring, insects and fleshy fruits in summer, and hard mast (nuts) in autumn in temperate areas, while in the tropics and subtropics fruit is eaten year-round (IUCN). Bears in one small Japanese study site ate fruits from over 30 woody plant species, and in Thailand from at least 30 tree families.
Autumn nuts help temperate bears build fat for winter. Feeding bears break and pile branches into canopy "nests". Asian black bears are likely important seed dispersers. They also feed in plantations, where they may strip bark, and in corn and oat fields and orchards, which brings them into conflict with people.
Did you know?
Every Asian black bear's chest moon is a little different.
Scientists in Thailand told bears apart by the shape of their chest crescents in camera-trap photos.
Distinctive chest patterns allowed mark-recapture density estimates from camera traps in Thailand, the only rigorous estimates for the species.
An amazing body
Asian black bears have big round ears and strong legs.
Their claws are short and strong, which helps them climb trees. The moon shape on the chest is different on every bear.
Asian black bears have a big, round head with large ears, a thick black coat and that famous pale crescent on the chest. Their claws are short, about 5 centimeters, and strong, which makes them good tree climbers. The Animal Diversity Web says they are powerful swimmers too.
Each bear's chest mark is a little different. Scientists in Thailand used these chest patterns to recognize individual bears in camera-trap photos and count them.
The head is large and rounded with large ears, and the short claws, about 5 centimeters, make the species adept at climbing (Animal Diversity Web). Males are considerably heavier than females.
The chest crescent varies between individuals: researchers in Thailand used distinctive chest patterns to identify bears in camera-trap photos and produced the only rigorous density estimates for the species, 8 to 29 bears per 100 square kilometers in Khao Yai National Park (IUCN). The IUCN also notes that this species produces high levels of ursodeoxycholic acid in its bile, a compound that may help protect bears during hibernation.
Growing up
Baby bears are called cubs.
A mother has one or two cubs in a den in winter. The cubs are very small. They stay with their mother for two years or more.
Asian black bears usually mate in June and July, and cubs are born in winter, between November and March, in a den in a cave or hollow tree. A mother usually has one or two cubs. At birth they are tiny, only about 225 to 300 grams.
Cubs drink milk for a little over three months, then learn to find food with their mother. They stay with her for two to three years, so a mother has cubs only every few years. Bears usually have their first cubs at four or five years old.
Breeding usually takes place in June and July, with births between November and March, though timing is not known for all parts of the range (IUCN). Pregnant females den even where other bears stay active, because the cubs are born helpless (altricial) in winter. Litters usually hold one or two cubs, weighing about 8 to 10.5 ounces (roughly 225 to 300 grams) (Animal Diversity Web).
Cubs are weaned at just over three months but stay with their mother for two to three years. First reproduction is typically at four to five years, with litters every other year at most. Maximum lifespan is over 30 years, but the average in the wild is lower, and survival rates and causes of death in the wild are not known.
Winter sleep and wide wanderings
In cold, snowy places, Asian black bears sleep through the winter in a den.
In warm places, they stay awake all year. They walk a long way to find fruit and nuts.
In the cold north, in Russia, Korea, Japan and northeastern China, and high in the mountains farther south, Asian black bears hibernate. They enter their dens between October and December and come out between March and May. Dens can be in rock crevices, hollow trees, under fallen trees or in holes they dig.
Where food is available all year, from the Himalayan foothills southward, they do not hibernate. Bears move to different places and heights through the year, following ripening fruit and nuts.
Both sexes hibernate where winter food disappears or snow covers the ground, entering dens from October to late December (earlier when nuts are scarce) and leaving from mid-March to the end of May. Dens are in rock crevices, hollow trees and stumps, under upturned trees, in dug earth dens or in ground nests; in mature Japanese forest, bears denned in hollow trees with entrances above the ground.
Asian black bears move seasonally between habitats and elevations to track food, and home ranges can exceed 100 square kilometers, often carrying bears beyond protected-area borders. Males may exclude females, young bears and sun bears from rich nut stands. In dry southeastern Iran and Pakistan they rest in rock caves by day and feed at night.
Did you know?
Bears build nests up in nut trees!
When feeding in nut trees, Asian black bears break branches and pile them up in the treetop, making a platform like a nest.
Feeding bears break branches and pile them in the canopy, forming platforms or "nests" in hard-mast trees.
Helping Asian black bears
There are fewer Asian black bears than there used to be.
Their forests are being cut down, and some bears are hunted. People are working to protect forests and keep bears safe.
The Asian black bear is Vulnerable. Its forests are being cut down for logging, farms, plantations, roads and dams, and many bears are hunted illegally or caught in wire snares set for other animals.
There is good news too. In South Korea, where bears had almost disappeared, a reintroduction program in Jirisan National Park, started in 2004, has helped bring them back. Protecting forests and working with local communities help bears and people live side by side.
The IUCN assessed the species as Vulnerable in March 2016 (published 2020), estimating a 31 percent decline over the past 30 years and continuing decreases. Main threats are habitat loss and hunting for skins, paws and especially gall bladders. Bear bile has long been used in traditional medicine; bile farming, extracting bile from captive bears, began in Korea in the late 1970s and spread to China, Viet Nam, Lao PDR and Myanmar. It is technically illegal in all of these except China, and all international trade in the species' bile is illegal under CITES. In 2012 the IUCN called for no increase in bear farms and a phase-out outside China.
Human-bear conflict occurs across the range, with crop and livestock losses, human injuries and the killing of bears in retaliation (IUCN). South Korea's population, nearly lost, has been restored by reintroduction in Jirisan National Park since 2004.
IUCN Red List
How is the asian black bear doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable (this animal)
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Vulnerable
At high risk of disappearing from the wild.
Amazing facts
-
Every Asian black bear's chest moon is a little different.
Scientists in Thailand told bears apart by the shape of their chest crescents in camera-trap photos.
Distinctive chest patterns allowed mark-recapture density estimates from camera traps in Thailand, the only rigorous estimates for the species.
-
Bears build nests up in nut trees!
When feeding in nut trees, Asian black bears break branches and pile them up in the treetop, making a platform like a nest.
Feeding bears break branches and pile them in the canopy, forming platforms or "nests" in hard-mast trees.
-
Asian black bears help plant new trees.
Asian black bears eat so much fruit that they probably help spread the seeds of many plants.
As heavy fruit eaters, Asian black bears are likely important seed dispersers for some fleshy-fruited plants.
-
Some Asian black bears are blond!
Most Asian black bears are black, but a rare blond form has been found in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
A rare blond color phase was discovered in Cambodia, Thailand and Lao PDR (Galbreath and colleagues, 2000, cited by the IUCN).
Words to know
- omnivore
- an animal that eats both plants and animals
- hibernate
- to spend the winter in a deep sleep
- den
- a hidden shelter where an animal rests or raises its young
- crescent
- a curved shape like a new moon
- poaching
- hunting animals when it is against the law
- reintroduction
- bringing animals back to a place where they had disappeared
Discovery challenge
-
What shape is on an Asian black bear's chest?
Which pale marking does an Asian black bear have on its chest?
Which chest marking is typical of Ursus thibetanus?
- Bright orange spots
- A pale crescent, like a new moon
- Wide black stripes
Show the answer
A pale crescent, like a new moon
It has a pale shape like a new moon on its chest.
A white or cream crescent on its chest looks like a new moon.
The chest crescent; its old genus name, Selenarctos, means "moon bear".
-
What do Asian black bears eat in the fall?
What do Asian black bears eat a lot of in autumn?
What food do temperate Asian black bears rely on in autumn?
- Fish only
- Nuts like acorns
- Snow
Show the answer
Nuts like acorns
They eat lots of nuts, like acorns.
In autumn they eat nuts such as acorns, beechnuts and walnuts to get fat for winter.
Hard mast, which supplies fat reserves for winter denning.
-
What do bears do in cold, snowy winters?
What do Asian black bears in cold places do in winter?
Where do Asian black bears hibernate?
- They fly south
- They sleep in a den
- They swim in the sea
Show the answer
They sleep in a den
They sleep in a den all winter.
They hibernate in dens such as rock crevices and hollow trees.
Where winter food disappears or snow covers the ground: Russia, Korea, Japan, northeastern China and high elevations farther south.
-
Where do Asian black bears live?
On which continent do Asian black bears live?
Which country holds more than half of the species' range?
- China, in Asia
- Brazil, in South America
- Australia
Show the answer
China, in Asia
They live in Asia.
They live across Asia, and more than half of their range is in China.
China comprises more than half of the total range area.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Most of its land is steep mountains and forest, Mount Fuji is its tallest peak, and about 124 million people live there, many of them in big cities such as Tokyo.
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Watch
Country
China
China is the largest country in Asia, almost as big as all of Europe. The land steps down from the high, cold Plateau of Tibet in the west to plains and coasts in the east, and about 1.4 billion people live there, along with giant pandas in the mountains of south-central China.
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Animal
Sloth bear
The sloth bear is a shaggy, black bear of the forests and grasslands of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It is a bear that specializes in eating termites and ants: it digs open their nests with long claws and sucks them up through a gap in its front teeth. Mother sloth bears carry their cubs on their backs.
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Animal
Sun bear
The sun bear is the smallest of the world's eight kinds of bear, and it has the longest tongue. It lives in the forests of Southeast Asia, climbs trees with long curved claws, and rips open logs to find insects and honey. Every bear has its own chest patch, like a fingerprint.
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American black bear
The American black bear is the most common bear in North America. It lives mostly in forests, climbs trees with its short, curved claws, eats mainly plants, and spends the winter in a den. Not all black bears are black: some are brown, cinnamon, blue-gray or even white.
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Giant panda
The giant panda is a black-and-white bear that lives in misty mountain forests in China. About 99 percent of its food is bamboo, and it spends up to 16 hours a day eating. Pandas were once endangered, but protecting their forests has helped them, and they are now listed as Vulnerable.
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Watch
Country
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Most of its land is steep mountains and forest, Mount Fuji is its tallest peak, and about 124 million people live there, many of them in big cities such as Tokyo.
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Watch
Country
China
China is the largest country in Asia, almost as big as all of Europe. The land steps down from the high, cold Plateau of Tibet in the west to plains and coasts in the east, and about 1.4 billion people live there, along with giant pandas in the mountains of south-central China.
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Aardvark
The aardvark is a shy night digger of African savannas. It sniffs out ant and termite nests, rips them open with its spade-like claws and laps up the insects with a sticky tongue about 30 centimeters long. Its name means 'earth pig' in Afrikaans.
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African buffalo
The African buffalo is a huge, cow-like grazer with heavy, curving horns. It lives in herds that can number in the thousands, and a herd will rush to protect a calf in danger. It lives across much of Africa south of the Sahara, from open savannas to rainforests.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Identify the Asian black bear by its chest crescent and large ears.
- Explain how its diet and winter behavior change with the seasons and climate.
- Locate its wide range across Asia.
- Discuss why the species is Vulnerable and how reintroduction and forest protection help.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a bear in a cold place need to sleep through winter, while one in a warm forest does not?
- How can eating lots of fruit help a forest grow?
- What could villages near bear forests do to keep both people and bears safe?
Try at home or in class
- Make a seasons chart with four boxes and draw what an Asian black bear eats in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
- Look at photos of several bears' chest crescents (or draw your own) and see if you can tell them apart, like scientists do with camera traps.
Key vocabulary: omnivore, hibernate, den, crescent, poaching, reintroduction
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Ursus thibetanus, global Red List assessment (assessed 2016, published 2020) , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Ursus thibetanus (Asiatic black bear) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.