The cloud forest habitat in which it lives is rapidly disappearing under the increasing deforestation of the land to support subsistence agriculture. Its range extends along the slopes of the Andes mountains in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Small pockets of a few spectacled bears may also live in southern Panama and northern Argentina on the respective northern and southern limits of the Andean mountain range. Its preferred habitat is the moist tropical forest which exists between the desert scrub present at lower elevations and the alpine meadows at the higher elevations within the Andes. The spectacled bear is a large mammal whose size and weight show high variability depending on food availability, climatic conditions, etc.
Females are generally about two-thirds the size of males.
The potential lifespan of spectacled bears in the wild is estimated to be in excess of twenty-five years or more. They are unique among bears in that they have thirteen pairs of ribs, one less than all the other bear species. The skull is comparatively large in relation to body size and spectacled bears are equipped with very powerful jaws and strong teeth. Their claws are highly adapted to climbing and they are very much an animal of the trees. While members of the order Carnivora , they have evolved primarily into vegetarians with accompanying changes in their teeth structure and digestive tract.