Ursidae Family

General Information
1. Characteristics
  1. diurnal, and they are solitary animals
  2. large bodies, stocky legs, long snouts, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with claws, bulky, short legs and short tails, excellent sense of smell, undeveloped carnassial teeth
2. Taxonomy
  1. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Ursidae Genus: Ursus Species: Ursus Arctos (Brown Bear)
  2. Ursus maritimus, Ursus thibetanus, Ursus maritimus
Current Status
1. Species
  1. 8 species of bears in 5 genera
  2. the only eight of the species that are extant
2. Ecosystems
  1. Bears are widespread
  2. most abundant and diverse in temperate and boreal regions
  3. caves, and burrows as their habitat/den
  4. mainly found in North America, Asia, and Europe
Role
1. Used by Humans
  1. they’re used for food and folk medicine, their paws are considered as a delicacy and other parts of the body for Chinese traditional medicine
  2. fur trade, circus animal acts
2. Importance
  1. foxes, insects, and prey depend on bears
  2. foxes depend on bears for their own prey
    1. rely heavily on scavenging polar bear kills
    2. if a bear is set to get a seal, the seals attention is on the bear, therefore the seal would never see the fox coming for it too
  3. insects that feed on bears
  4. the bears prey will start to over populate so the bears will have to control it
  5. top level predator necessary for healthily functioning ecosystems
  6. as scavengers, they clean up dead animal carcasses
    1. which would pollute and spread disease everywhere
  7. their homes, breeding grounds are also the homes of many other wildlife species
  8. bears like grizzlies play an important role as seed dispersers and nutrient providers
  9. grizzlies directly regulate prey populations
    1. help prevent ungulate overgrazing and increase the amount of nitrogen that is available through soil disturbance and through salmon carcass dispersal
Threats
1. sun bears as data sufficient
  1. several brown bear subspecies, giant pandas and polar bears as endangered
    1. sloth and spectacled bears as vulnerable
2. been hunted since prehistoric times
  1. being used and tortured
    1. according to ICUN, these threats are increasing
3. food chain will be disrupted
  1. all species depending on bears will go out of control
Conservation
1. laws passed in many parts of the world to protect them from habitat destruction
2. we should teach others and children about bears
  1. ways to protect them, from not letting bears get used to us
    1. or else they'll come and eat our garbage
3. protect them from being attacked by humans
4. promote posters, groups, through media

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Ursidae Family

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