The Spectacled Bear

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Geetika Anand

Many of us wear glasses when we have problems with eyesight. But, have you ever heard of bears with glasses? No, not the bears who appear on the Cartoon Network on TV. Real bears.

The spectacled bear [Illustration by Shridevi]
The spectacled bear [Illustration by Shridevi]

There is a kind of bear which lives in the forests of South America. It is called the ‘spectacled bear,’ or the Tremarctos Ornatus.

It has white coloured fur around its eyes, which makes it look like it is wearing glasses. Some of these bears have only the bottom half of their glasses, whereas in some others the eye rings are so thick that they completely fill up the face.

The spectacled bear is the smallest among bears. An adult will be about 64 cm high at its shoulders, 120 to 180 cm in length, with a 7 cm long tail. it weighs less than 135 kg and the colour of its hide varies from dark brown to black.

Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also known as the Andean bear or Andean short-faced bear and locally as jukumari, ukumari or ukuku.
Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also known as the Andean bear or Andean short-faced bear and locally as jukumari, ukumari or ukuku.

The adult bear gives birth to one or two cubs at a time after a gestation period of eight to eight-and-a-half months.

The bear is a master at climbing trees and feeds on nuts, fruits and leaves most of time. Sometimes, it may eat small animals like deer too.

229 words | 2 minutes
Readability: Grade 4 (9-10 year old children)
Based on Flesch–Kincaid readability scores

Filed under: planet earth
Tags: #glasses

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