Asiatic black bear

Ursus thibetanus

Group: Predators & furbearers
Size class: Large (70–300 kg)
Family: Ursidae

Range

Asia

Habitat

Forest
Mountain

Range

Countries it is found in

17 countries

Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Cambodia
China
India
Iran
Japan
Laos
Nepal
North Korea
Pakistan
Russia
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Vietnam

Range from:ASM Mammal Diversity Database — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also called the Asiatic black bear, moon bear or white-chested bear, is a medium-sized, largely tree-dwelling bear of Asia. It ranges very patchily from southeastern Iran through Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Himalayan foothills to mainland Southeast Asia, China, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, the southern Russian Far East and the Japanese islands of Honshū and Shikoku; in the Pleistocene it reached as far west as Iberia. It lives in deciduous, mixed and thornbrush forest, in summer up to about 3,500 m in the Himalayas and in winter below 1,500 m; in Japan it also occurs at sea level. The IUCN lists it as vulnerable, threatened by deforestation and by poaching for paws, gall bladders and cubs for traditional medicine; bile has been prized in Chinese medicine for some 3,000 years, and in 2008 over 7,000 were thought to be kept on bile farms. Numbers are poorly known: China's government estimate is 28,000, India's is 7–9,000 and Pakistan's about 1,000. Japan is the exception — conservation policy and an ageing, shrinking body of hunters took the Japanese population from about 15,000 in 2012 to some 44,000 in 2023.

Chapter 02

Identification

A black bear with a light brown muzzle and a distinct whitish or creamy patch on the chest, often V-shaped; a few animals are brownish. The longer hair around the neck gives the Swedish name, collar bear. The bell-shaped ears are proportionately longer than other bears' and stick out sideways, and the tail is short, around 11 cm. Adults stand 70–100 cm at the shoulder and measure 120–190 cm. Males weigh 60–200 kg, averaging about 135 kg; females 40–125 kg, large ones up to 140 kg. It resembles a lighter, smaller brown bear, with larger, more mobile lips and nose and a low, short sagittal crest. A powerful upper body and comparatively weak hind legs make it a strong climber, and it is the most bipedal of the bears, able to walk upright for over 400 m. The hooked claws are 30–45 mm on the forefeet and 18–36 mm behind.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

Mainly diurnal, the bear turns nocturnal near people. It climbs to feed, rest, sun itself and escape, breaking branches beneath it as it eats so that many trees in its range carry nest-like platforms. Most do not hibernate, but in the colder north they den from about November to March in hollow trees, caves, holes or sunny slopes, and nearly all pregnant females den. With enough food a bear may stay within 1–2 km². Its calls range from grunts, whines and roars to loud hisses as a threat, a tongue-clicking "tut tut" on approaching other bears and clucking in courtship. It is omnivorous: insects and larvae, honey, carrion, acorns, pine nuts, hazelnuts, cherries, grapes, fruit, grasses, roots and grain, with acorns the year-round staple in Japan. It also kills ungulates fairly regularly — muntjac, serow, takin, wild boar, even adult water buffalo, by breaking the neck — and takes livestock. In Sikhote-Alin mating runs from mid-June to mid-August; implantation is delayed, and after 200–240 days usually two cubs are born in a cave or hollow tree in winter, staying with their mother for two to three years.

Chapter 04

Hunting

In British India black bears were stalked in the forests around the Kashmir valley — with more care than brown bears on the open hills, since the black bear sees and hears better — or driven out of small patches of forest by beaters. They were seldom hunted for sport, as the fur was poor and the bears easily shot in trees, but wounded ones were known to be extremely dangerous. The Asian black bear is generally more aggressive towards people than other Eurasian and American bears, and sudden close encounters cause most attacks. Today it is legally hunted for sport only in Japan and Russia, according to Wikipedia, which gives 75–100 bears taken legally in Russia each year against a reported 500 illegally; the same article lists it in Russia's Red Data Book, under special protection with hunting prohibited, and protected since 1983. In Japan, where matagi hunters traditionally drove bears upslope to a waiting gun in spring or late autumn, a management manual of 2000 capped the annual cull; as the recovered population brought a sharp rise in attacks from around 2023 — a record in 2025 — the government in 2024 revised its plan towards active population management through hunting. Elsewhere it is protected: under China's wildlife protection law hunting without a permit is severely punished; in India it is a Schedule I species and on CITES Appendix I; Vietnam has prohibited its hunting and export since 1989; Taiwan lists its bear as endangered; and the Korean government has designated it Natural Monument No. 329.

Field data

Tracks

A photograph of real sign left by Asiatic black bear. Prints vary with gait, ground and how long they have been there — treat this as one example, not a template.

Track photo:呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)CC BY

On the table

Meat & cooking

Table grade 1 of 51/5

Sold as meat in a legal market
Has a named traditional dish
Published way to handle and cook it
Eaten in more than one country
No known health advisory

Before you eat it: Bear meat can carry Trichinella, a parasite potentially lethal to humans, and must be cooked thoroughly. Among the Rukai of Taiwan, who may hunt the bear, children are traditionally forbidden to eat its meat and it may not be brought into the home.

Sources

Sources: Asian black bear — Wikipedia, Kragbjörn — Wikipedia (sv), Bear hunting — Wikipedia — read 2026-10-29

Cross-reference