Do you know the Winnie the Pooh stories? If so, you’re probably aware that Pooh adores honey more than anything else. He devours it by the pailful and often can’t stop thinking about his next honey fix. You might be excused for assuming that bears exclusively eat honey if this children’s tale were your sole exposure to bears. Pooh’s portrayal of bears’ feeding habits is far from accurate. Instead, the eight remaining bear species consume a diverse range of foods. These massive terrestrial mammals go far and wide, feeding and hunting all the way to the Arctic Circle from the Americas, Europe, and Asia. While certain bear species may consume unusual foods, no bear spends its days lazily sucking on honey. Even so, the issue of “What do bears eat?” is raised by Winnie the Pooh’s portrayal of bears.

In this post, we’ll take a look at bear diets in an effort to address this issue. First, we’ll go through the typical diet of a bear. We’ll go on to discuss bears’ hunting and foraging techniques next. The difference between a bear’s diet in the wild and a zoo setting will be discussed next. Finally, we’ll take a look at the diets of young bears. Get ready to learn a hefty chunk of information as we dissect the age-old subject, “What do bears eat?”