Tibetan Brown Bear

• India has recorded its first-ever confirmed record of a rare Tibetan Brown Bear.
• The bear was spotted in high altitudes of Northern Sikkim thanks to the camera traps installed by the Sikkim Forest Department and WWF-India.
• With this discovery, the nation’s animal diversity has increased by one subspecies.

ABOUT TIBETAN BROWN BEAR

• The Tibetan brown bear, also known as the Tibetan blue bear, is one of the rarest subspecies of bears in the world and is rarely sighted in the wild.
  • Only a few were sighted from Nepal, Bhutan, and the Tibetan plateau.
• It lives in high-altitude alpine forests, meadows, and steppe above 4000 m.
• The omnivore mainly feeds on marmots and alpine vegetation.
• The Tibetan brown bear is characterised by its yellowish scarf-like collar that broadens from the shoulders to the chest, very different from the more commonly found Himalayan black bear in appearance.
• Protection status
  • IUCN Red List- Endangered (Least Concern on global level )
  • WPA 1972- Schedule I
  • CITES- Appendix 1