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ORIGINS OF THE SPECIES
Our current-day bears descended from a group of small tree-climbing carnivorous animals. The earliest bears, from about 40 million years ago, were the size of small dogs. Panda Bears were the first to diverge, originating in central Asia about 20 million years ago.
The first bears appeared in what is now known as North America approximately 5 million years ago. A group known as True Bears, the ancestors of today’s bears, developed around 3.5 million years ago. Black Bears, as we know them today, became a distinct species about 2.5 million years ago. Brown Bears, Polar Bears and others came later, beginning around 1 million to 600,000 years ago. Relatively speaking, bear species are not very old, as many modern bird species go back much further in time. Nonetheless, bear species have done well over the millennia.
SPECIES AROUND THE WORLD
Bears are some of the most widely distributed land animals in the world. Although historically there were many hundreds of bear species around the world, the eight species in existence today are found in 65 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
