This map, created by Kenny Chmielewski for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, shows the distribution of the eight species of bears in the world.

The colours represent each of the whale species that still remain on the planet:

• Turquoise: American black bear (found in North America)
• Purple: Tibetan bear (found in Asia)
• Orange: Brown bear (found in North America, Asia, and Europe)
• Red: Giant panda (found in central Chinca)
• White: Polar bear (found throughout the Arctic region)
• Yellow: Bearded bear (found in India)
• Dark green: Spectacled bear (found in South America)
• Light green: Malayan sun bear (found in Southeast Asia)

There are currently no bear species in Africa, although there was a subspecies of brown bear that inhabited the Atlas region of Morocco until the second half of the 19th century. The only continents that have never been inhabited by bears are Oceania and Antarctica.

Sources

• Geographical ranges of living bear species