The Ursari or Richinara are the traditionally nomadic occupational group of animal trainers among the Romani people.
The Ursar, drawing by Theodor Aman
Print showing of a dancing bear and its handlers in Hesse, ca. 1810
Ursari in Transylvania, 1869 engraving
Photograph of a boy in a bear costume, Budapest
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, and Eurasia. Common characteristics of modern bears include large bodies with stocky legs, long snouts, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and short tails.
Bear
Plithocyon armagnacensis skull, a member of the extinct subfamily Hemicyoninae from the Miocene
Life restoration of Arctotherium bonariense
Fossil of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), a relative of the brown bear and polar bear from the Pleistocene epoch in Europe