Cryptid bears
A diagram illustrating the difference between modern North American bears and the giant short-faced bear
The bears listed here are not recognised officially by scientists. A couple of them have specimens that have been collected, but nothing has ever been done to show that they are new species. So many cryptid bears wouldn't be cryptids if someone would take the time to examine their specimens.
McFarlane's bear (North West Territories NA): McFarlane's bear is an unusual bear, with cream-coloured hair and a head that looks more like some extnct species than any living bears. One was shot near the Anderson River, and it's skin and skull are somewhere in the Smithsonian. If someone would take the time to go through the museums archives, they might be able to "discover" this cryptid.
Alaskan "giant polar bear" (Alaska and Kodiak Island NA); An enormous white bear, much bigger than a Kodiak, that is a creamy white and has hair on the pads of it's feet is mentioned in Alaskan folklore. One woman from Kodiak Island remembers vividly how her father once killed a giant white ebar with hairy paws. she insisted it was ntohing like a Kodiak bear. Possibly the same species as McFarlane's bear.
Adam's hedgehog-bear (California NA): "Grizzly" Adams reported seeing a strange creature, a bear with it's back and sides covered with spines like a hedgehog. No other creatures like this have been seen, and Adams may have made it up.
Milne (Peru and Columbia SA): A large black bear that is reported from the forests of Peru and Columbia. Possibly a modern species of short-faced bear, considering the only known bear in SA, the spectacled bear, is descended from the short-faced bears.
Red mountain bear (South-Eastern Andes SA): A bear from the lower streches of the Andes which has reddish coloured fur. Probably descended from the short-faced bears, or maybe a colour-phase of the spectacled bear.
Pygmy brown bear (Peru SA): A very small brown bear reported from Peru. Either a species descended from the short-faced bears, or a pygmy race of the brown bear. Animals in the tropics are smaller than their northren kin, so it would make sense if a South American brown bear was alot smaller than a grizzly or Kodiak.
African dwarf bear (Morocco and neighboring North African countries): A small, dark grey or brown coloured bear which is said to live in the Atlas Mountaisn and in nearby Morocco. Most probably a remnant population of the atlas bear, the last of which were supposedly killed off by the Romans.
Nandi bear (East African countries): A huge, ferocious carnivore, the very mention of which brings fear to all native warriors. The nandi bear is supposedly a huge strictly carnivorous bear with 6 toes on each foot, a reddish or tan coloured coat, and a habit of hiding in trees and ripping people's heads open. It's unearthly howls can be heard more often than it is seen. It is though to be either a giant hyaena, a chalicothere (ancient horse-like mammal), or a giant bear.
Chinese white bear (Hubei province in China ASIA): A pure white bear supposed to live in the Shennongjia forests in Hubei province, China. Bears have been extinct in China for a long time, but it is possible that a population has survived. Most likely a white population of brown or black bears, like the kermode bear from British Columbia. Perhaps a new species.
Irkuiem(Siberia ASIA): A giant pure white bear, different from the polar bear, which dwells on the Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia. Probably a species of short-faced bear.
Bergman's bear(Siberia ASIA): Stan Bergman killed an enormous black bear, similar to the irkuiem, that was truly gigantic, exceeding all other bears in size. There is a folkloric history of these bears amongst the local Siberians, and Russian hnters have claimed to have killed them before. Deffinitely some kind of short-face bear, possibly even Arctodus simus, the giant short-faced bear which terrorized North America 10,000 years ago.
Murung River "bear" (Borneo INDONESIA): A bear-like creatur that has been reported from the Murung River region in Borneo. Probably not a true bear, but an animal like the binturong. The binturong is a huge palm civit (huge for a palm civit is about 4 feet long) that somewhat looks like a small bear. The Murung River creature could a be a second, much larger species of binturong.
