Animal Summary
Honey the zoo’s Asiatic Black Bear, who came to the zoo in 2002 at the age of two, loves her diet of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes the keepers give it to her in a pile she can find right away. On other days the diet is spread out and hidden in her yard so she has to use her fantastic sense of smell to find it.

Facts

• You can tell the age of a black bear by cutting crosswise through its tooth and counting the rings, which are similar to the rings found in a tree.
• Bears climb by wrapping its front legs tightly around the trunk and climbing up. To descend, the bear always come down backwards, hindquarters first.
• Asiatic Black Bears are very similar to their North American cousins. A few of their differences are a smaller body, long hair ruff on either side of their face and the cream or white colored “V” or crescent shape on their chest.

Conservation
The Asiatic Black Bear is protected in a majority of its range.

Threats

There are two main threats to the Asiatic Black Bear population. One is habitat loss and destruction due to the spread of human population. Second is poaching the animal for use of its body parts in traditional Asian medicine.