In Ecuador, it is called "osos de anteojos," Spanish for "the bear with eyeglasses."

In North America, we call it the spectacled bear. The only bear to be found south of the equator gets its name from the distinctive white circles around its eyes, which resemble a pair of eyeglasses. Each spectacled bear also has a pattern of white markings on its face, neck and chest that is as unique as a set of fingerprints and can be used to tell one bear from another.

Threat of Extinction

The endangered spectacled bear is rapidly disappearing from the wild. Lincoln Park Zoo is leading a conservation effort with one of the most successful spectacled bear breeding programs in the world, a commitment reflected in the amount of space and number of naturalistic habitats devoted to these bears. Lincoln Park Zoo manages approximately 20% of the captive spectacled bears in North America and 10% worldwide. Close to 30 spectacled bear births have been recorded here since our breeding program began in 1968.