Spectacled Bear
Ever seen a bear with glasses on? OK so Spectacled Bears don't really wear specs, but they do have white rings round their eyes and no two bears have the same pattern so you'll easily tell them apart.
Our two adult bears are easy to recognise. Firstly, Franka, the female, is occasionally found in the treetops because she loves climbing.
Sangay, the male, is much bigger than Franka – nearly twice her size – and he prefers water to trees, so if it’s hot you'll sometimes see him paddling near the waterfall in their enclosure.
Anyone who's read the children's stories about Paddington bear will know he came from deepest darkest Peru. It means he was a Spectacled Bear because no other types of bear come from South America.
That's why they're sometimes called Andean Bears, after the Andes mountains where wild ones live. There's only about 20,000 left. So we must do all we can to make sure they survive.
But it's quite difficult because they're very shy and secretive which makes it hard to find out a lot about them.
We do know they love to rummage for food, so we give them different foods in different ways several times a day. Then they have to search for it just like they would in the wild.
Franka and Sangay are registered on the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme, a carefully managed scheme overseeing the breeding of zoo animals in different countries.
It means we work closely with other zoos to help breed more of these wonderful bears for future generations.
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Species Information
Where they live: found in several areas of northern and western South America, including western Venezuela Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Bolivia.
Habitat: Various habitats within the Andes Mountains, including desert-scrub, ‘Paramo’ or high altitude grasslands and lush, misty cloud forests, ranging in elevation from 250 to 4,750 m
Size: Males grow up to 40% larger than females. Head-body length range from 1.2 – 2 metres, shoulder height 70 - 90cm
Weight: Females weigh up to 84kg, males up to about 155kg,
Conservation status: IUCN Red List: Vulnerable
Threats: Habitat fragmentation and destruction caused by livestock farming and logging is a major threat to this species. Spectacled bears are also persecuted by local farmers for killing cattle and destroying maize crops. Habitat fragmentation continues to bring bears and humans into closer proximity, leading to increased human-bear conflict. Though the hunting of spectacled bears is illegal, the species is still poached for its meat, skin, bones, fat and claws, which are all in demand locally. The gall bladders are occasionally marketed, being of value in traditional oriental medicine, and can fetch a high price on the international market