Tremarctos Gervais, 1855

Bear, A Contribution To The Taxonomy Of The Andean, Ornatus, Tremarctos, Carnivora, Ursidae, Andean, F. Brandstaetter The, Tremarctos, Cuvier, It, Andes., Andean, Troya, Ruiz-Garcia, Being, America, South, Andean, American, South, et, As Morrison Iii, Kitchener, Scientific, Ng, All, Welter-Schultes, With & Andean, 2020, A Contribution to the taxonomy of the Andean Bear, Zoodiversity 54 (5), pp. 357-362 : 359-360

Genus Tremarctos Gervais, 1855

The entepicondylar foramen is used as the name giving trait for the genus Tremarctos which in itself is the type genus of the subfamily (trema, gr. — hole). (Note that Rabeder et al., 2000, wrongly translated trema as “spectacles” or “glasses” due to a fatal misconclusion drawn from the common name spectacled bear.)

Although the generic name has been established by Gervais (1855) it was not used before the 1970s as the clear distinction between the Andean bear and the other ursid species has been confirmed ( Garcia-Rangel, 2012).

According to the rules of the ICZN generic names are only complete with mentioning the author in the string.

Species Tremarctos ornatus (F. Cuvier, 1825)

(latin ornatus — decorated)

A species binominal name must include genus – specific epithet — author’s name — year of description. It is common practice to separate author and year by a comma (Welter- Schultes, 2013). The full name has to be mentioned at least once in a scientific publication. In any further mentioning the author’s name and year can be omitted and the genus can be shortened to its initial (e. g. T. ornatus ). The combination of genus and specific name to properly identify a species is fundamental in binominal nomenclature.

The species epithet (or specific name) ornatus refers to the white-yellowish markings in the face and on neck and breast of the animals. It has first been given by Frederic Cuvier referring to the “two circles in the face” as Ursus ornatus (in: Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Cuvier, 1825). Later this species name was transferred to the genus Tremarctos . Currently, it is considered as Tremarctos ornatus (Cuvier, 1825) .

The author’s name is sometimes given as F. Cuvier or F. G. Cuvier to distinguish him from his brother Georges who was an even more important zoologist of the 19th century ( Flourens, 1840). According to the analysis of Welter-Schultes (2013) initials are not important and should be omitted.

Further, although the printed work named Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Frederic Cuvier as authors it is remarked on page 11 of the first volume that all contributions without signature are by Frederic Cuvier ( Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Cuvier, 1824). Such is the case for the chapter on the “ours des cordiliéres du Chili ” which includes the first known (and accepted) description of the Andean bear.

It is a bit confusing that Cuvier named it in fact ours des cordiliéres du Chili as Andean bears are not known to occur in Chile. Cabrera (1957) redefined the given type locality to be in Peru. This is consistent with the known range of the Andean bear .

The markings have also been widely used for the common names of the species:

It is called spectacled bear with reference to the markings sometimes surrounding the eyes of the animal like glasses. The name has equivalently been used in German as Brillenbär, in French as ours à lunettes and in Spanish as oso de anteojos. (Remark: English names as well as those form most other languages do not have capital initials (upper-case letters) ( Grubb, 2006). German language treats them all as personal names and consistently writes common names with upper-case letters.)

The name has been widely used until the early 2000s when it was replaced by the term Andean bear. Scientific authorities have decided to use that name for two reasons: firstly, not all Andean bears show the glasses markings around the eyes (particularly those in Bolivia are often lacking the markings: see Dathe, 1968). Even more so, the markings are highly variable and individual ( van Horn et al., 2014). Secondly, Andean bears are good representatives of the Andean fauna as they are distributed over the major part of the South American Andes. They can also be found in all types of habitat of the Andes ( Troya et al., 2004). They count as an iconic species of the Andes ( Jones, 2010) representing the whole Andean ecosystem. Thus, the name spectacled bear masks the true importance of the Andean bear as an umbrella species for the conservation of the whole Andean ecosystem ( Duckworth et al., 2014) and the name Andean bear gives the species a stronger identity in the sense of Kortlandt (1998).

The term Andean bear is in common use at least since the early 2000s. Its German equivalent Andenbär has been used as early as 1968 by Dathe and was in parallel use alongside with Brillenbär for four decades. It was not until recently that the EEP decided to follow the SSPs decision to use the alternative name Andean bear to clearly design conservation purposes ( Kolter, 2017). The Spanish equivalent is o so andino (e. g. Figueroa, 2014).

One of the indigenous names for the Andean bear is ucumari which has been mentioned by Tschudi (1844). According to Tschudi ucu mari means “something that lies in (ucu) the forehead (mari)” referring to the markings on the forehead. Other names are oso achupayero which means “bromelia eating bear” ( Kolter, 2000) referring to the preferred food of Andean bears in the wild, and el savaje (the wild one) which has been confirmed for Venezuela ( Massot, 2017).

According to Reitz (2005) the Andean bear is sometimes called mapinguri in Bolivia. This reference is interesting with regard to the fact that there is a mythological creature called the Mapinguari in the Amazon basin which has been described as a big mammal, walking on two legs, being strong and dangerous. This creature has been identified as a species of giant ground sloth by cryptozoologists ( Oren, 2001) which is thought to have survived the extinction of the genus until recently.

Particularly interesting is the word puma which is commonly attributed to the cougar (Puma concolor). According to Paisley & Saunders (2010) the Quechua word puma means „strong animal force“ and has been equally used to designate the cougar, the jaguar ( Panthera onca ) and the Andean bear — the three apex predators of South America. This could be of particular interest in conservation management as it might contribute to errors in the traditional perception of the bears in rural societies.