A Spectacled Bear in New York

September 22nd, 2006

From September 22nd to 28th, New York’s Central Subway Station will be decorated with large full-colour billboards depicting Peru’s stunning Natural Parks and Reserves. It will be part of a project named Parks and Conservation Experience, an initiative by National Geographic.

In the image to the left, obviously one of the billboards, a Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) climbs a tree in the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve, in Peru’s northern Lambayeque department (Foto: Heinz Plenge/ Promperu). The Spectacled Bear, also known as Andean Bear (and locally as ukuko, jukumari or ucumari), is the only species of bear native to South America.

It has black fur with a distinctive beige-coloured marking across its face and upper chest. They are found in several areas of northern and western South America, including western Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia, north-western Argentina, and southern Panama.

Spectacled bears are the only surviving species of bear native to South America, and the only surviving member of the subfamily Tremarctinae. Next to the Giant Panda, of which the spectacled bear is the closest relative, they are the most endangered species of bear in the world. Their survival has depended mostly on their ability to climb even the highest trees of the Andes and the Amazonian rainforests (Source:Wikipedia).

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