Legends & Lore

Pre-colombian sculpture, possibly of a spectacled bear.

Few people will ever see a spectacled bear in the wild. For most of us, they're something we heard about from a biology class or saw a TV special on. For indigenous peoples of northwestern South America, spectacled bears are the stuff of legend, mystical go-betweens for lost souls, magical creatures linked to the Pleides, or kidnappers of beautiful women. For an in-depth look at the more spiritual & cultural relationships between these bears and the humans who live closest to them, see Denis Torres' Spectacled Bears and Culture.