Bear With Me on This One Trivia Quiz

Answer: California

Grizzly bears could be found throughout western North America, down well into Mexico. Gold mining and western settlement put tremendous pressure on them, and by the early 20th Century, those in California and Mexico had all been killed off. (This is despite the fact that they were famous enough to be featured on the flag of California.) All grizzly bears are classified as brown bears, and still live on in Yellowstone, western Canada, and Alaska.

They are famous for their aggressive nature.

Answer: spectacled bear

Spectacled bears are the last bears that can be found in South America, in the northern Andes region. They are named for the light-colored markings that they have on their faces. In their habitats, spectacled bears are arboreal and meat consists of about 5% of their diets. Spectacled bears retreat from humans, but are seriously threatened by poaching and habitat loss.

Their gallbladders are highly sought after for traditional medicine.

Answer: False

Pandas have not been a notable menu item for thousands of years. The Chinese do not have a history of eating them, and the rare instances that have been recorded claim that pandas have a terrible taste. One commonly cited example is Leng Zhizhong, who was convicted of killing and attempting to eat one.

He didn't enjoy the meal at all. Theodore Roosevelt's sons Kermit and Theodore IV are also reported to have eaten it, but did not record what they thought of it.

Answer: honey bear

The sun bear is the smallest of bears and can be found in southeast Asia. It commonly lives in tropical forests and is famous for its love of honey. As with all bears, they do eat a wide range of foods, in particular fruits, insects, and occasionally larger animals.

In recent times, sun bears have seen a dramatic population decline in their native range and are now listed as a protected species.

Answer: none

Asia has a sun bear and also a moon bear -- also known as the Asian black bear. Unlike most bears, they can be relatively aggressive towards people. Moon bears are the most common type held on bear farms, which keep bears captive to extract their bile for 'traditional' medicine.

It should be of little surprise that such bears die quickly and the benefits of bear bile are nonexistent. Most countries that do allow this practice have restrictions on it; additionally, it is possible to synthesize the ursodeoxycholic acid in bear bile without even using any animal parts.

Answer: True

Brown bears can be found in large parts of Asia, northern North America, and isolated parts of Europe. They come in a great number of varieties and while some have gone locally extinct, are not considered a threatened species on the whole. Their size and coloring are notably variable, and also plays into sexual dimorphism. Brown bears eat a large variety of foods, and are often attracted to garbage dumpsters that people fail to secure.

Answer: vitamin a

Polar bears live at the top of the world, where they prefer to live among the ice of the Arctic. Although polar bears have fur which appears white, their skin is black, and their black noses can be seen from miles away on a clear day. They are so well-insulated that they are nearly invisible under infrared imaging. Polar bears are hunted by natives in the region.

The liver is never eaten because it has such a high concentration of vitamin a that it is toxic to people and dogs.

Answer: False

Kodiak bears are impressively large, but polar bears are considered to be larger, on average, by a small margin. They are a subspecies of brown bear that can be found in the Kodiak Archipelago of Alaska. They feed on many things but are quite content with the salmon runs that occur from May through September.

Despite their fearsome size and closeness to people living around Kodiak, kodiak bears avoid people and bear attacks are relatively rare.

Answer: crepuscular

American black bears are among the few bears that are not a threatened species, though their range has been noticeably reduced by people. They are the smallest of bears and are most related to Asian black bears, despite the distance between them. Despite being "black" bears, there are a few color varieties, with cinnamon being the most common. Black bears are crepuscular and can easily be avoided by hiking during daylight hours.

Answer: catching fish

The Kermode bear, or spirit bear is not an albino bear, but a rare color variety of American black bear. Spirit bears are most likely to be encountered in British Columbia. Spirit bears have been found to be more effective at catching fish during daylight hours, because fish have a harder time seeing them due to their pale coloring.

They are prominent in the legends of the indigenous peoples of the area.