Bear Coloring Pages
Free printable bear coloring pages featuring grizzly, brown, black and polar bears, plus cubs, dens and forest scenes for kids and adults.
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Bears are the animal children draw before they can draw animals, so this collection covers both the bear in their head and the bear that actually lives in the woods. You get the round cartoon cub sitting beside a honey pot, and you get a grizzly standing at full height with its fur drawn strand by strand. These 15 printable bear coloring pages cover four species across every season. Each one downloads as a free PDF sized for US Letter paper, 8.5 by 11 inches, with instant download and no account needed.
Simple and detailed sheets run side by side. The simple line art keeps the bear large with a clean silhouette and works from about age 3. Smiling Bear Face Close Up is one shape and nothing else, and Cartoon Bear Waving Hello leaves the whole belly blank for a pattern or a name. The detailed sheets add dense fur, falling water and rock texture. Grizzly Bear Head Portrait and Grizzly Bear Catching a Salmon at a Waterfall are the two adults tend to keep for themselves.
The species are drawn to be told apart, which is the part most bear collections skip. Put the grizzly and polar bear coloring sheets next to each other and the differences do the teaching for you. Grizzly Bear Standing on Its Hind Legs carries the heavy build and the long claws. Polar Bear Standing on an Ice Floe has the longer neck and the smaller ears that suit an animal built for swimming. Black Bear Eating Berries in a Berry Patch shows the smooth back and tall rounded ears, and no shoulder hump at all. Panda Bear Sitting and Eating Bamboo is here because a panda is a bear, whatever the diet suggests.
There is a full cub section, since that is what most children come for. Mother Bear Walking With Her Cub, Bear Cub Sitting Up in a Tree, Bear Cub Peeking Over a Fallen Log and Polar Bear Mother and Cub in the Snow all give a small animal and a lot of white space. Cute Bear Cub Sitting With a Honey Pot is the cute cartoon bear coloring page for kids that gets printed most, and the blank pot doubles as somewhere to put stripes.
Two tips for this theme. A brown bear is not one brown. Lay a mid brown over the body, then go darker along the legs, the belly and under the chin, and leave the shoulders and the top of the back much paler, because that is where the sun hits and where grizzlies get their silver tips. For the polar bear, resist the urge to fill the coat with grey. Colour the water and the sky instead, put pale blue only in the shadows under the jaw and along the belly, and let the paper carry the fur.
More line art in this direction: Teddy Bears, Foxes, Wolves and Forests.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a grizzly bear and a black bear?
The shoulder hump. A grizzly has a large muscle mass over its shoulders for digging, so its highest point is the shoulder, while a black bear has a smooth back and its highest point is the rump. Grizzlies also have a dished face and much longer front claws, and black bears have taller, more rounded ears. Colour is the least reliable test of all, because black bears come in brown, cinnamon and even white. Compare Grizzly Bear Standing on Its Hind Legs with Black Bear Eating Berries in a Berry Patch and the back line gives it away.
Is a polar bear white?
No. Polar bear fur is not white and not even really coloured. Each hair is hollow and transparent, and it scatters light the way snow does, which is what makes the animal look white. The skin underneath is black, which helps it hold heat. That is a good reason to leave Polar Bear Standing on an Ice Floe almost unpainted and colour the water instead.
Do bears really hibernate?
Not in the strict sense. Bears enter torpor, where the heart rate drops sharply but body temperature falls only a few degrees, so they can wake up if something disturbs the den. A true hibernator like a ground squirrel goes far colder and is much harder to rouse. Mothers give birth in the den in midwinter without properly waking, which is why the cubs in Polar Bear Mother and Cub in the Snow start life so small. Sleeping Bear Curled Up in Its Den is the sheet for that story.
Which bear pages suit a three year old?
Start with the ones built from a few large shapes. Smiling Bear Face Close Up is a single face and nothing else, and Cartoon Bear Waving Hello is one bear on empty paper. Save Grizzly Bear Head Portrait for ages 8 and up, because the whole face is fur texture with almost no flat area to rest in.
Do bears actually eat honey?
They raid hives, but the honey is only half the point. Bears are after the bee larvae as much as the sweet stuff, since the grubs carry the protein and fat they need. Their thick coats and loose skin let them take a lot of stings while they work. That is the scene in Cute Bear Cub Sitting With a Honey Pot, with the bees still circling.
What is the difference between these and the teddy bear pages?
These are animals and the Teddy Bears collection is toys. The sheets here are drawn from real species, with the right ears, claws and body shape, so they work for a school animal project. Teddy bear sheets are stitched toys with bows and patches, which is a different job and often a better fit for a very young child. Plenty of people print both.