1 66 Mammals of Eastern Asia 
patch around each eye are black. The length of the head and 
body is from 4% to 5 feet, the tail 5 inches. The weight may 
be well over 200 pounds. 
This arresting mammal is found only in the mountains of 
Szechwan and Kansu between 6000 and 14,000 feet. It lives in 
bamboo jungles, feeding chiefly upon bamboo shoots up to 
y 2 inch in diameter. The droppings of adults, shaped like eggs 
5 to 7 inches long, are composed of partly digested bamboo 
shoots. It may hibernate in winter. The litters consist of 1 or 2 
cubs. The remains of a fossil relative, the Burmese Giant Panda, 
Aelureidopus baconi, have been found in a cave in upper Burma. 
THE BEARS (FAMILY URSID^) 
These are medium to very large carnivores with heavily built, 
rather clumsy body and limbs, large, non-retractile claws, five- 
toed plantigrade feet (the heel being, as a rule, set flat to the 
ground, at least when walking erect), very small tail, and 
whiskers reduced to vestiges. The teeth, though large, are not 
specialized for meat eating ; the cheek teeth are of crushing type, 
the specialized shearing mechanism seen in most carnivora, 
being weakly developed. Most kinds of Bears, though unable to 
leap and comparatively slow of movement — deceptively so, actu- 
ally — are expert climbers. 
Five genera of Bears are recognized in eastern Asia: the 
Polar Bear, Thalassarctos, the True Bears, Ursus, the Asiatic 
Black Bears, Selenarctos, the Sloth Bears, Melursus, and the 
Malay Bears, Helarctos. One of the most distinct of these is 
the semi-aquatic Polar Bear, which being highly carnivorous, 
has larger incisors and smaller last molars than the others, 
besides its whitish pelage and more hairy feet. The genera of 
land Bears are distinguished by more obscure characters. 
The Polar Bear, Thalassarctos maritimus of the north polar 
regions, is represented in the extreme north of eastern Asia by 
the scarcely different geographical form T. m. marinus. The 
