On Christmas eve in 1956, the late Michael Bond bought a small toy bear that had been left on the shelf in a London store because he felt sorry for it.
He took it home as a present for his wife and named it Paddington, after the railway station. Michael began writing about the bear from “Darkest Peru” and discovered he had a book on his hands.
A Bear Called Paddington was published on 13th October 1958 and a whole series of tales about the charming protagonist followed. They have been since adapted for TV and film and have captured the imaginations of millions.
The latest movie about the bear is Paddington in Peru, which follows Paddington and the Brown family as they embark on an Amazon adventure in search of Paddington’s Aunt Lucy.
Is Paddington a spectacled bear?
Though the film is based in Peru, the real Paddington – the Andean or spectacled bear – lives in the middle to upper cloud forests and páramo grasslands of several South American countries.
The species is the inspiration behind the familiar fictional icon, though not as conspicuous as the forlorn character sitting on a London railway platform.
Tremarctos ornatus is the only species of bear in South America and the last remaining short-faced bear in the world. You won’t catch it carrying a battered leather suitcase and donning an old red bucket hat and duffle coat – it’s far too humid – but you may spot it wearing ‘spectacles’. Many Andean bears have rings of light fur around their eyes, giving rise to their other common name of spectacled bear.
Robert Wallace is a senior conservation scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Bolivia. “I grew up watching Paddington, so I was desperate to see Andean bears in the wild,” he says. Robert has been lucky enough to see the species several times in the past decade, but particularly remembers his first encounter: “On a beautifully crisp Andean morning, I clambered over a rock-strewn slope to get reasonably close to a large male that was foraging on bromeliads.”
What do Andean bears eat?
After the giant panda, the Andean bear is the second-most ‘vegetarian’ bear. The omnivore does eat meat (rodents, rabbits and birds), but its diet is dominated by bromeliad leaves, some types of bamboo, berries and other fruits.
Paddington may be a “wise bear who always keeps a marmalade sandwich in his hat in case of emergencies”, but Andean bears do not eat citrus fruits. However, they do forage seasonally on Rosaceae and Ericaceae berries and eat some Lauraceae fruits.
Where do Andean bears live?
Andean bears are endemic to the tropical Andes and live in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The species can be found up to 5,000m above sea level and as low as 200m, but predominantly occurs between 4,250m and 1,500m.
According to the 2017 assessment by the IUCN Red List, the Andean bear global population was estimated at approximately 10,000 adults. “It is difficult to say which country has more bears because researchers are updating their estimates,” says Ximena Velez-Liendo, a conservation fellow at Chester Zoo and the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. “Nevertheless, if we consider habitat quality and size, Bolivia and Peru would be the countries with the most.”
Robert, from WCS, is director of their Greater Madidi-Tambopata Landscape Conservation Program, which supports the Bolivian Natural Protected Area System (interlinked protected areas) and national parks, as well as indigenous people and local communities in their conservation efforts.
The Greater Madidi-Tambopata is situated on the eastern slopes of the Andes, between north-western Bolivia and south-eastern Peru, where WCS has focused on documenting the habitat preferences of the Andean bear, as well as conducting camera-trap studies. “We are using field signs such as hairs, tracks, trails, scats, nests and evidence of feeding to determine presence or absence, and to monitor the species on a large scale,” he explains. “The most obvious sign of presence is often bromeliad damage, as the bears chew the leaves of the plant’s succulent base.”
While you’re unlikely to see Andean bears ascending a staircase using a banister, they are excellent climbers and commonly build tree platforms from surrounding vegetation, on which they rest, eat and guard feeding areas. The species tends to be most active during the day, but its movement varies seasonally and between geographic areas.
Unlike the sociable literary icon, the Andean bear is solitary and individuals only come together to mate, with the timing varying by place and influenced by food availability. Females have between one and three cubs after a five- to eight-month gestation period and births occur before the major fruiting season. Cubs then stay with their mother for about two years before dispersing. The species is also capable of halting embryo development until meals are plentiful.
Andean bears have large home ranges and don’t hibernate. Instead, they migrate seasonally in search of food. “Data from Ecuador suggests adult males use areas of about 50km², with females ranging about half that area,” says Robert. “Population density estimates are scarce and preliminary, but they all point to densities of between five and 10 bears per 100km².” This information underlines the most important aspect for the protection of the real Paddington in the future: “Andean bears are big omnivores that require large and preferably undisturbed protected areas, and therefore need landscape-scale conservation efforts”.
