In response to a spate of recent bear questions, particularly concerning the taxonomies of pandas and grizzlies:
Did you grow up hearing "A panda isn't really a bear, that it is more closely related to raccoons"? In the past the giant panda was often classified as belonging to a unique family, the Ailuropodiae (as the only member or sometimes with the red panda) or as a member of the raccoon family Procyonidae. It is now usually considered a bear in the family Ursidae (though perhaps a distinct subfamily) - a decision based on DNA, but nonetheless very reassuring to everyone who thought giant pandas sure did look like bears.
Class Mammalia; order Carnivora; family Ursidae now includes eight species of bear:
brown bears Ursus arctos Europe, Asia, North America (includes grizzlies)
black bears Ursus americanus North America (Smokey)
sun bears Ursus malayanus Southeast Asia
polar bears Ursus maritimus Artic
Asiatic black bears Selenarctos thibetanus Asia
sloth bears Melursus ursinus Asia
giant pandas Ailuropoda melanoleuca (visit the National Zoo downtown or the cams)
spectacled bears Tremarctos ornatus South America
Essential reading: 599.78 CRAIGHE Bears of the world by Lance Craighead and 599.78 MONTGOM Search for the golden moon bear : science and adventure in Southeast Asia, a book by Sy Montgomery with a children's adaptation located at J 599.78 MONTGOM. (She also wrote 599.538 MONTGOM Journey of the pink dolphins : an Amazon quest.)
See also: previous post on zoo pandas
Basic bear information: North American Bear Center. For children, the Portsmouth N.H. school bear project.
Charming power point presentation on both fictional and real bears for children. If you are using open source software, be sure to have ppt files set to open automatically in Impress (the slideshow component of openoffice.org) or something similar.
Posted by library at October 6, 2005 10:35 AM