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Pakistan
World & History
A large brown bear of the high plateaus and alpine meadows of Gilgit-Baltistan, especially the Deosai Plains.
Himalayan brown bears have sandy or reddish-brown fur. They eat grasses, roots, rodents such as marmots, and sometimes livestock, and they hibernate through the long winter.
Their numbers in Pakistan fell sharply because of hunting, poaching of cubs, and conflict with herders. The cruel practice of bear-baiting has been banned.
Deosai National Park was created in 1993 largely to protect them, and studies there have recorded a slow increase in the bear population.