Notable records of the Tremarctos Spectacled Bear ornatus (Carnivora: Ursidae) in the north of Antioquia, Colombia.

Abstract

The Andean bear, Tremarctos ornatus, is the only living and representative bear of the Tremarctinae subfamily in South America. Its distribution includes from the Cordillera de Mérida in the northwest in Venezuela, the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia (Peyton 1999, Wilson and Mittermeier 2009) and more recently with a confirmed presence in northeastern Argentina (Del Moral and Lameda 2011 ), from 200 to 4700 masl (Peyton 1999). In Colombia it has been registered in the Andean region, inter-Andean valleys and in the Serranías del Baudó, Darián, Perijá and Macarena. Here we report, after 200 years without registration, the possible return of the Andean bear to the North of Antioquia.