There are eight bear species you can help to conserve. Get involved. Choose a bear. They all need your help!

Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are listed among the world’s most threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are perched on the brink of extinction and will vanish from Earth without serious intervention. The major historical cause of the panda’s threatened status has been the destruction and fragmentation of its habitat, primarily through logging. Read about the collaborative Panda Survival Plan.

Sun bears: (Helarctos malayanus) Next to the giant panda, scientists believe the sun bear is most at risk of becoming extinct this century. Very little is known about the sun bear. Population numbers are declining rapidly due to lack of scientific information and government commitment to protect the species; converting primary growth forests to agriculture and palm oil plantations; and poaching for the pet trade and Asian food delicacies and traditional medicines. Get to know UFP member Siew Te Wong, the world's sun bear expert, and get involved with his conservation efforts at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Take action.

Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are also known as moon bears. They are teetering on the brink of extinction from illegal trafficking for Asian medicine and food delicacies and lack of scientific knowledge about their ecology. In addition, the forested habitat necessary for survival is being converted for agriculture and palm oil plantations. UFP also believes an ethical issue faces this species, as they are tortured on bear bile farms for bile secretions that are used in traditional Asian medicine. Take action.

Andean bears (Tremarctos ornatus) are sometimes called spectacled bears because of their markings. The species is suffering heavily and faces extinction from forest fragmentation through increased cattle grazing and maize and palm oil production, oil exploration, mining and "nuisance" killings when these gentle vegetarian bears wander from fragmented forests into human settlements and crop fields looking for food and mates. Andean bears are found only in isolated pockets of South America.Take action

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) are threatened with extinction and are quickly losing ground in their natural range due to severe habit loss, poaching for the Asian medicine trade, and lack of scientific knowledge needed to protect them. UFP also believes there is an ethical concern for this species over India’s cultural tradition of poaching cubs to raise and train them as dancing bears for roadside entertainment. Take action.

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are increasingly being threatened with extinction from melting Arctic sea ice resulting from global warming. Polar bears who once lived out on the ice floes are searching for food in coastal communities where people live, and they are drowning while trying to swim from shore to increasingly distant sea ice in search of food for themselves and their cubs. In addition to shrinking vital sea ice, climate change appears to be altering the pathways by which pollutants enter the polar bears’ ecosystems, and oil drilling still poses a threat. Learn how climate change affects polar bears. Follow the WWF polar bear team. Take action with Polar Bear International.

Brown bears (Ursus arctos) are not on the IUCN Red List only because there are still large populations of the species in Alaska and parts of Canada. But the species is facing extirpation in many other countries as threats increase from poaching, salmon declines and cultural traditions such as trophy hunting, den hunting and bear baiting. Take action.

American black bears (Ursus americanus) not long ago were threatened with decreasing population numbers. Because of reintroduction efforts throughout North America in recent years, today the American black bear is the only bear species that stands a good chance of making it into the next century. Nonetheless, threats face the American black bear as other bear species rapidly diminish while demand for bear parts for Asian medicines and food delicacies increases. Other threats are logging and human encroachment in bear habitat, which fragment the forest that bears need to survive and puts them in increasing conflict with humans as the bears search for food, mates and suitable den sites.Take action.

The spirit bear, or Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei), is a subspecies of the American black bear. One-tenth of their population has white color variant owing to a unique recessive trait. Kermode bears are not albino, and they are not polar bears. The rare and beautiful spirit bear lives only in the lush rainforest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, in Canada. The greatest threats facing the spirit bear are a lack of protection for wild salmon – its primary food source, habitat fragmentation and exploitation of the American black bear, from which its genetic trait derives. Take action.

The goal of the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA) is to promote the conservation and restoration of the world’s bears through science-based research, management and education. The encroaching of human beings in wild places has resulted in the decline or disappearance of bear habitat and bear populations in portions of their ranges. Continued viability of populations and the possible restoration of bears in certain areas, will be largely contingent upon a cooperative approach towards research, management, land use, and education, and will increase in cost as land values escalate. The IBA, an association primarily of professional biologists with an interest in bears, recognizes these difficult bear research and management problems faced by agencies and governments.

The IBA plays a valuable role in bear conservation, management and information sharing for the world's bear species. You can also click to donate to IBA's Bear Conservation Fund, which assists bear biologists in their field studies. IBA's publication Ursus accepts original manuscripts.

Many species cannot be sustained solely by remaining inside the boundaries of existing protected areas. Large protected areas are losing native species, especially carnivores and large mammals.

Freedom to Roam is an initiative of environmentalists, businesses, outdoor recreationalists, ranchers, hunters and anglers, urban folk and rural folk joined together to create continental corridors so that wildlife can survive on a warming planet. Patagonia founded Freedom to Roam, but now it is a non-profit project of the Tides Center and on its way to becoming an independent non-profit organization that makes wildlife corridors and connectivity a top environmental issue in 2009 and 2010 throughout North America. Read one young grizzly bear's story of his 50-mile odyssey to cross a freeway to return home, where he was raised as a cub.

Air flights have an impact, as evidenced by Planestupid's new cinema ad, written and commissioned by creative agency Mother and made by production company Rattling Stick. Director Daniel Kleinman. The bears are animated, not real, polar bears.