wow! They are very distinctive, aren't they, with those huge white collars and contrasting dark bodies, plus the furry ears. So a distinct race or subspecies of Brown Bear?
The one penting his fingers doesn't look like Mr Burns though....
Although Ursus arctos is almost certainly oversplit in terms of subspecies, I rather suspect that this is one of the valid taxa - my gut feeling is that this, the Himalayan Brown Bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus) and the Syrian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos syriacus) represent a cline of related forms, with the Syrian subspecies having interbred to some degree with the Eurasian nominate subspecies.
yes that is the one. I was going by memory (I haven't uploaded my Beijing photos yet) and I just remembered the shaggy ears. It obviously isn't a Tibetan blue bear! To be honest the Chinese zoos are blurring together a bit. I can't remember the Shanghai bears at all!!
EDIT: I just realised that was my photo from Shanghai Zoo! I really am a bit down in the brain department lately.....
Along with my above theory about the Tibetan, Himalayan and Syrian Brown Bears all forming a natural subspecies cline, another thing I have idly wondered in the past is whether the Tibetan Blue Bear population might include natural arctos x thibetanus hybrids in their genetic heritage going way back. Your photographs, looking as they do much like someone has grafted the face of a Brown Bear onto the body of an Asiatic Black, are rather intriguing in this regard.
