Sadly, each species continues to face threat from habitat destruction and other external factors. For instance, landmines in Croatia have killed European brown bears, and forest fires between India and Pakistan have reportedly resulted in two black bears' deaths. In the mountains of northern Spain, a railroad, highway, and ski resort have split the area's dwindling brown bears, resulting in two smaller populations of limited genetic diversity. Sun bears are taken from the wild for the pet trade and environmental pollutants threaten polar bears. P ossibly the most worrisome development, though, is the growing risk facing numerous bear species from the international trade in bear parts and products.
Bear paws are an expensive culinary delicacy.
It is a high priced meal, which can fetch hundreds of dollars or more in restaurants in Asia and other countries. As recently as December 1998, a Canadian restaurant was fined for serving bear paw soup. Practiced across the globe, traditional medicine is a centuries-old holistic medicinal practice that sometimes, unfortunately, employs parts of threatened and endangered animals in its materia medica. In China and Taiwan, bear bile apparently is also surfacing as an ingredient in luxury shampoos, tonics, and even hemorrhoid creams. B ear bile contains ursodeoxycholic acid, which has genuine medicinal application, unlike the questionable efficacy of rhino horn and tiger bone as aphrodisiacs.