A timid brown bear (Ursus arctos) peeks out from behind a tree in its lush pine forest home. Brown bears all over the world were once threatened because they were considered a threat and were killed by trophy hunters. Habitat loss and deforestation mainly caused by the logging industry further harmed these creatures. Because of tireless efforts from many biologists and conservationists, today, approximately 200,000 brown bears remain in the world, with numbers in the US slowly repopulating.

Sketch and fact contributed by Bhairavi Hegde, a student at American High School and volunteer for Oakland Zoo.

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Source:

Zedrosser, A., Steyaert, S. M., Gossow, H., & Swenson, J. E. (2011). Brown bear conservation and the ghost of persecution past. Biological Conservation, 144(9), 2163-2170.

[Edited by Adrian Perez]