Spectacled Bears in Peru

Abstract

Land nationalisation, starting in 1963, brought settlers and cultivation into mountain areas of Peru where hitherto spectacled bears had been disturbed only by occasional hunting. This greatly reduced the numbers of bears, and also habituated those that survived to eating the farm crops and farm animals that replaced their natural foods, thus incurring the wrath of the farmers who replied with guns. Moreover, bears are becoming isolated from each other, in some cases confined to high ridges surrounded by cultivated land. The author, who spent two years studying the spectacled bear in Peru, believes that as a result, fewer bears will be able to breed and that genetic variation will be reduced. © 1981, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.