Poachers also hunt them for their meat and body parts, and farmers kill them as agricultural pests. Do sloth bears hibernate These bears adapt their sleep-wake cycle to their environment and may be on a nocturnal, diurnal or crepuscular schedule depending on how many other bears, people or predators share their habitat. Spectacled bears populations suffer primarily from destruction and fragmentation of their habitat. Females usually give birth to one or two small, helpless cubs, which are mobile after a month, but remain with the mother for up to eight months, often hitching a ride on the mother’s back. Solitary animals, mature spectacled bears are normally seen together only during mating season. Occasionally they will supplement their diet with meat, taking small rodents, birds, insects, and even small cows, making them the largest carnivores in South America. However it is not uncommon for them to be active during the night as well, especially on clear nights when the. They have extremely strong jaws and wide, flat molars to chew tough vegetation such as tree bark and orchid bulbs. This means they sleep at night and hunt during the day. Highly agile climbers, they have been known to sit in a tree for days on a platform made of broken branches, waiting for fruit to ripen. Spectacled bears are generally nocturnal and are primarily vegetarian, harvesting fruit, berries, cacti, and honey. Despite their heavy build and awkward gait, they are adept runners, climbers, and swimmers. They will descend to search for food though, and have been seen in widely differing habitats, from rain forests, to steppe lands, to coastal deserts. They may be diurnal or nocturnal and have an excellent sense of smell. Intensely shy bears, they prefer the lush, isolated cloud forests on the slopes of the Andes, climbing as high as 14,000 feet. Females rarely weigh more than 180 pounds. Males, which are significantly larger than females, grow over 5 feet in length and weigh up to 340 pounds. They are considered to be crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk. Spectacled bears, also called Andean bears, are among the smallest members of the family Ursidae.

These lines, however, don't always fully encircle the eyes, and some individuals lack the markings altogether. They are so named for the whitish to yellowish rings that encircle their eyes, resembling large eyeglasses. Spectacled bears wear shaggy fur that is black, brown, or sometimes reddish.

The diminutive spectacled bear makes its home in the dense Andean jungles of South America, and it has the distinction of being the continent’s only bear.

Are bears nocturnal