Although this bear is typically diurnal, very little is known about them in the wild, as they are shy and tend to avoid humans, making them hard to find for researchers to study! The bears are native to the Andean countries from Venezuela to Bolivia, living in forests, grasslands, and scrublands.

Andean bears are true arboreal bears, using their long, sharp front claws to climb and forage for food. As they search for food in the forest, Andean bears live an arboreal lifestyle. They sometimes build leafy platforms in the trees, both in the wild and in zoos, which they may use to sleep and to feed. Because food is available year-round where they live, Andean bears are active year-round and do not spend months inactive in dens, as do American black bears or brown bears.

Salad, please. Wild Andean bears are omnivores, known to eat more than 300 plant species and over 20 animal species. The most common items in their diet appear to be plants, especially fruits, palms, and bromeliads. Bears living in scrubland habitat are even known to seek out snails and to eat cacti! Sometimes these bears feed on dead livestock and they will sometimes hunt cattle, which causes conflict with local farmers. The bears also pose challenges for local people when the bears raid cornfields.

While mostly solitary, Andean bears may gather together to eat where food is plentiful, such as a cluster of trees bearing fruit or corn ripening in a farmer's field. Eating so much fruit helps these bears play an important role in forest ecology: the seeds they eat are excreted in their droppings as the bears move around, spreading the seeds over long distances for the production of the next generation of fruit trees throughout the forest.

At the San Diego Zoo, the Andean bears are fed biscuits made for zoo omnivores, apples, carrots, grapes, yams, bananas, oranges, and lettuce. For treats they may be offered crickets and mealworms.