The Oldest Bears of All Time and Their Incredible Stories

Bears hold endless fascination for people—they’re huge, and intelligent, and they look oh so cuddly. It’s easy to imagine sitting on one like a big beanbag chair, its arms wrapped around you, though perhaps that’s just my imagination. On the flip side, they are massive carnivores that can end a person’s life with one bite or a swipe of a frying pan-sized paw. Coexisting with bears is especially important because they can live about 25 years. That’s a long time for them to interact with people, for good or ill. However, with excellent care in captivity, bears can live much longer than they do in the wild. In this article, we’ll meet some of the oldest bears ever recorded—each with its own unique story of resilience, longevity, and strength.

1. Otis (27 years old)

Otis is a brown bear (grizzly bear) who lives in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Experts estimated his age at about 28, and he was last seen in 2024. He’s well-known as a four-time winner of “Fat Bear Week,” an annual contest to find the most… rotund… bear fishing in the Brooks River. Observers say that Otis takes a slow, calculated approach to catching salmon and has a mellow personality.

2. Victoria (28 years old)

Victoria was a polar bear at Highland Wildlife Park in Aviemore, Scotland. She had a calm personality and strong maternal instincts, which helped her play a major role in conservation breeding programs. She was born in 1996 and euthanized for age-related health issues in 2025 at 28 years old.

3. Beezler (32 years old)

Beezler is the oldest Asiatic black bear ever documented in captivity. She originally came to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado with her sister, Honey, when they were just 18 months old. Adorably, the sisters loved cuddling together when they slept, even when they had the chance to sleep in separate spaces if they wanted. Sadly, Honey was euthanized for health reasons at 29 years old, and Beezler lived to age 32, passing away in June 2025 as the oldest Asiatic black bear in human care in the U.S.

4. Shunan (32 years old)

Tsuyoshi, a sun bear born in Myanmar in 1987, passed away at the Tokuyama Zoo in Japan at the ripe old age of 32. This is far beyond the normal sun bear life expectancy of 25 years and is estimated to be the equivalent of 90 human years.. He became meme-worthy by holding his head in his paws in despair when his mate stole his food. Check out the picture in the Japanese press.

5. Varvara (35 years old)

Varvara was a Eurasian brown bear, a species native to Europe. She lived at the zoo of St. Petersburg, Russia, and over her lifetime gave birth to 29 cubs. She was a calm and even-tempered mother. Zookeepers bonded with her and celebrated her birthdays as she kept getting surprisingly older. She outlived some of her children and finally passed away at 35, which is about twice the expected age for wild bears of her species.

6. Grizzly 168 (34 years old)

A bear named Grizzly 168 was a remarkable resident of Yellowstone National Park, where he reached the age of 34—an exceptional lifespan for this species. Grizzlies are a subspecies of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), known for their shoulder humps, long claws, and impressive strength. Grizzly 168 had a striking appearance: deep, nearly black fur speckled with white. And he was a cub at heart, carrying around and nudging a tennis ball: his favorite toy.

7. Jia Jia (38 years old)

Jia Jia, a female giant panda, held the record as the oldest panda ever kept in captivity, living to the age of 38. That’s nearly twice the average lifespan of wild pandas, which typically reach about 20 years. She was first found in the wild as a young cub, around two years old, and was taken to the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China for care and protection. In 1999, she was moved to Ocean Park in Hong Kong as part of a symbolic gesture of goodwill following the region’s handover from British to Chinese control. In her later years, Jia Jia developed age-related health problems including cataracts, arthritis, and high blood pressure, but she remained a beloved figure until her death.

8. Bear No. 56 (39 years old)

Known to researchers as Bear No. 56, this American black bear (Ursus americanus) from Minnesota made history as the oldest documented wild black bear. First identified and fitted with a radio collar in 1981, she went on to live an extraordinary 39½ years—nearly two decades longer than the typical black bear in the region. Most long-lived bears thrive in captivity, where they receive carefully managed diets, medical care, and protection from hunters and other animals. This makes Bear No. 56 all the more remarkable, as she lived her entire long life in the wild with minimal human intervention. She also raised an impressive 23 cubs over those years. Honestly, with that record, she deserved a better name than “Bear No. 56,” don’t you think?

9. Ginger (40 years old)

At 40 years old, Ginger was the longest-lived brown bear ever recorded in a North American zoo. She spent her life at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. With excellent care, she outlived the typical lifespan of captive brown bears by more than ten years. In her later years, Ginger developed arthritis, a common ailment in aging bears, but her dedicated caregivers helped manage the condition through specialized diets, medication, and attentive care. Eventually, when her health declined beyond treatment, she was humanely euthanized—a difficult decision, but the kindest option given her situation.

10. Gulabo (40 years old)

Gulabo was India’s oldest known sloth bear. She lived to an extraordinary 40 years of age—more than twice the lifespan for her species in the wild. Originally forced to perform on the streets, she was rescued in 2006. She was relocated to Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal and lived out the rest of her life in peace. Her keepers noted her fondness for lounging in the sun and indulging in her favorite treat: ripe mangoes. Her sense of smell was so sharp that she always knew when mango season had arrived. She would even eat less oatmeal at breakfast to save room for more mangoes at lunchtime!

11. Debby (42 years old)

Debby holds the record as the oldest polar bear ever documented. Born in the Soviet Union in 1966, she was orphaned early in life and later transferred to Canada, where she found a permanent home at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. Known for her gentle nature and friendliness toward visitors, Debby became a beloved figure at the zoo. During her years there, she raised six cubs with her longtime mate, Skipper. After a long and healthy life, Debby was humanely euthanized in 2008 due to multiple organ failure—she was 42 years old at the time, a rare age for any polar bear to reach.

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