header: Spectacled Bear
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Tremarctos ornatus (F.G. Cuvier, 1825)


INTRODUCTION

map Both sexes of the Spectacled Bear have black to dark brown fur, with white-yellow markings around the face, giving rise to the name 'spectacled'. The species occupies habitats which include coastal and inland deserts, dry forest, rain forest, cloud forest , steppe, and paramo.1 The optimum Spectacled Bear habitat appears to be the lower part of cloud forests between 1,900m and 2,350m.8 The bears are generally nocturnal, bedding down during the day under trees and in caves and feeding around dawn and dusk.2 Males have been reported to enter feeding areas with one or more females, and sometimes with yearling animals.8 Although the Spectacled Bear is omnivorous, the majority of the diet is plant material.3 A variety of tree and cacti fruits are consumed, whose availability depends on season, altitude and other factors, and bears tend to move to follow the pattern of fruit production. Bromeliads are taken as an alternative when fruit is unobtainable. 3 The gestation period for this species is between 200 and 260 days; litter size of the species varies from one to three cubs which (at least in Peru) are born during the season of heaviest rainfall. In this way the cubs' first 3 to 4 months coincide with the season of fruit abundance.1 Encroaching agriculture has forced bears into areas where there is no all year round food supply and this can result in crop-raiding.8


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