Bear Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross bear crossword: the eight kinds of bears, what they eat, and how cubs and dens work.

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Bear Crossword

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Answer key: Bear Crossword

1PAWOL2H3SALM4ONORM5DENNE6GRIZZLY7CVLO8P9HIBERNATEMEN10CUBD11CLAW

Across 1 PAW · 3 SALMON · 5 DEN · 6 GRIZZLY · 9 HIBERNATE · 10 CUB · 11 CLAW

Down 1 POLAR · 2 HONEY · 4 OMNIVORE · 7 CLIMB · 8 PANDA

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The Eight Bears and Their Kin 22

  • Andean Second name of South America's bear, after its mountains
  • Asia Continent of the smallest bear, which lives in its southeastern tropical forests
  • Atlas ___ bear: a vanished brown bear of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia
  • Cinnamon Kitchen bark whose name goes with one color form of the black bear
  • Eight Number of bear species alive today
  • Extinct Gone for good, like the short-faced bears that once inhabited North America
  • Glacier ___ bear: a black bear with a silver-blue coat, sometimes called the blue bear
  • Gobi Desert whose brown bears, called Mazaalai in Mongolian, are critically endangered
  • Grizzly Inland brown bear that Lewis and Clark wrote down as grisley
  • Hybrid Cross between two species; a brown bear and the bear of the sea ice can produce one
  • Koala Tree-dweller of Australia that is inaccurately called a bear
  • Kodiak Alaskan islands whose brown bears are among the two largest bears alive
  • Moon ___ bear: another name for the Asian black bear
  • Panda Giant ___: black-and-white bear that lives wild in only one country
  • Polar ___ bear: the largest living bear, white-furred and at home on sea ice
  • Sloth ___ bear: insect eater of the Indian subcontinent, with a mane around its face
  • Spectacled ___ bear: the only living species native to South America
  • Spirit ___ bear: fully white black bear of British Columbia; 100 to 500 exist
  • Subspecies Rank just below species; North America's gray-tipped brown bears are counted as one
  • Sun ___ bear: the smallest species, named for its orange to cream chest patch
  • Ursidae Scientific name of the bear family
  • Ursus Latin for a he-bear, and the first word of several species names

Paws, Teeth and Senses 26

  • Canine Large tooth that a bear uses mostly for show
  • Claw A bear has five on each foot and cannot pull them in
  • Climb Go up a tree, as black bears regularly do to feed or to escape
  • Ears Small and rounded on the head of a bear
  • Eyesight Sense once thought poor in bears; studies show it is quite good
  • Fur Coat that is white or yellowish on the bear of the sea ice
  • Gait Way of walking; a bear's is called awkward
  • Hearing Sense that in a brown bear is likely equal to a person's
  • Hump Mass of shoulder muscle that powers a brown bear's digging
  • Lip Long lower one helps an Indian bear suck up insects
  • Molar Rear tooth with a flat crown, where a bear crushes its food
  • Neck Longer on the bear of the sea ice than on a brown bear
  • Nose A bear's key to its surroundings
  • Paw A bear's foot; a brown bear's can be 21 cm wide
  • Plantigrade Word for walking with the toes and the long foot bones flat on the ground
  • Runner In spite of its heavy build, a bear is an adept one
  • Scent What bears use to tell one another of their presence and rank
  • Skin Black on the white-furred bear of the sea ice
  • Skull Head bone, massive in a bear, that anchors powerful jaw muscles
  • Smell The most important sense a bear has
  • Snout Muzzle; a bear's is long
  • Stocky Short and thick, like the legs of a bear
  • Swimmer A bear is an adept one, heavy build or not
  • Tail Short on a bear
  • Thumb Extra grip on the forefoot of China's bear, for holding stalks in place
  • Tongue Long tool with which the smallest bear licks up insects

What Bears Eat 30

  • Acorns Oak seeds that a black bear may eat by the hundreds each day in fall
  • Ambush Sudden strike from a waiting place, the usual way the ice bear takes prey
  • Bamboo Plant whose stalks and shoots are nearly all a black-and-white bear eats
  • Beg Try for another bear's leftover fish scraps
  • Berries Small sweet fruits, a big part of a black bear's summer meals
  • Blubber Energy-rich layer of its prey that the bear of the ice primarily feeds on
  • Calories One fish of the Brooks River run contains about 4500 of them
  • Carnivorous Meat-eating, as the bear of the sea ice mostly is
  • Carrion Animals killed by the cold season and found in spring, a mainstay for brown bears
  • Dive Go completely under water after fish, which most bears do not do
  • Eggs With the brain, among the fattiest parts of a fish, which a well-fed bear prefers
  • Forage Search for food, as brown and black bears may do by night
  • Grasses Green plants that are among brown bears' spring mainstays
  • Herbivorous Plant-eating, as China's bear mostly is
  • Honey Sweet food for which some bears raid the nests of bees
  • Moths Army cutworm ___: insects on the menu of Yellowstone's brown bears
  • Mushrooms Fungi that brown bears feed on
  • Nuts Whitebark pine ___: food of Yellowstone's brown bears, and of black bears in fall
  • Omnivore Feeder on both meat and greens, as six bear species are
  • Pirate Steal fish from other bears, one of the fishing styles seen at Brooks River
  • Roots Tough underground food that brown bears are uniquely equipped to dig for
  • Salmon Fish that brown bears of coastal Alaska catch when it comes in to spawn
  • Seal Sea animal that is the chief prey of the bear of the ice
  • Snorkel Look for fish with the face under water, a common bear fishing style
  • Sockeye Fish that bears stand and wait for at the top of Brooks Falls
  • Squirrels Small burrowers that a brown bear digs for
  • Termites Insects eaten, with fruits, by the maned bear of India
  • Thirty A large male will sometimes catch and eat more than this many fish a day
  • Vegetable ___ matter: source of up to 90% of a brown bear's food energy
  • Walrus Tusked sea animal, other prey of the bear of the ice

Dens, Cubs and Seasons 26

  • Arboreal Word for an animal at home in trees; four bear species qualify
  • Boar Male bear
  • Cub Young bear; in Alaska's Katmai park one stays about 2.5 years with its parent
  • Den A bear's lodging for the cold months, such as a cave or a log
  • Diurnal Active mostly during the day, as brown and American black bears generally are
  • Habitat Place where an animal lives; people's spread into it puts bears under pressure
  • Hibernate Stay in a shelter through the cold months, as most bears do
  • Hierarchy Ranking that lets bears meet at a river mostly without violence
  • June Peak month of the bear mating season in Katmai
  • Litter All the young born at one time, up to four for a bear
  • Milk Rich in fat, it is a newborn bear's food
  • Mother The only parent that raises a young bear
  • Nocturnal Abroad after dark, as some bear species may be
  • October Month, with November, when Katmai's bears usually enter their shelters
  • Pound One ___: about what a brown bear weighs at birth
  • Pregnant Carrying young; such bears go to their shelters earlier than single ones
  • Sleuth Name for a group of bears
  • Slope Hillside; Katmai's bears usually overwinter on a steep, heavily vegetated one
  • Solitary Keeping to itself, as a bear typically does outside courtship and child-rearing
  • Sow What a bear watcher calls a she-bear
  • Subadult Independent young brown bear, typically 2.5 to 5.5 years old
  • Torpor Dormant condition, running in multi-day cycles, that a black bear enters
  • Twenty About this many years is the average life span of a wild brown bear
  • Vulnerable IUCN status given, with endangered, to six bear species in all
  • Winter Season that most bears spend in their shelters
  • Yearling Young bear in its second year

Bears in Words, Stars and Stories 17

  • Arctic Region whose name comes, by way of a star pattern, from the Greek for bear
  • Arktos Ancient Greek for bear
  • Bera Old English word from which "bear" comes
  • Bern Swiss city named, the story goes, for the first animal its founder met on a hunt
  • Bjorn Swedish word for bear, also used as a first name
  • California State whose flag shows a bear walking on a patch of green grass
  • Callisto Figure of Greek myth who was transformed into a bear
  • Chairs Seats, one of which the intruder breaks in the old tale of three bears
  • Dipper Big ___: name for the best-known part of the Great Bear
  • Mississippi State of the bear-hunting trip of November 1902 that named a plaything
  • Porridge Food eaten by the intruder in the old tale of three bears
  • Roosevelt President for whom a stuffed toy was named after a hunting trip of 1902
  • Russia Country for which a bear has been a symbol since as early as the 16th century
  • Teddy ___ bear: plaything developed in the first decade of the 1900s
  • Ursa ___ Major: the Great Bear of the northern sky
  • Ursine Adjective meaning "of a bear"
  • Ursula Girl's name that means "little she-bear"

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for grades 2 to 8, in six sets. Facts were checked against the National Park Service's Brown Bear Frequently Asked Questions page for Katmai National Park and Preserve (nps.gov) and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. The two fairy-tale clues follow the old story of the three bears. Licence: own work

How it works

This bear crossword puzzle prints on Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 easy words, among them Grizzly, Polar, Cub, Den, Hibernate, Claw, Salmon and Omnivore. Bear stays in the clues and is never an answer.

Read the full guide

Five sets after the easy one

The Eight Bears and Their Kin has Kodiak, Sloth, Spectacled and Spirit. Paws, Teeth and Senses has Plantigrade, Canine, Eyesight and Scent. What Bears Eat has Termites, Acorns, Sockeye and Carrion. Dens, Cubs and Seasons has Yearling, Sleuth, Torpor and Solitary. Bears in Words, Stars and Stories has Arctic, Callisto, Ursula and Dipper.

From a river in Alaska

Many clues follow the National Park Service's answers about the brown bears of Katmai: Snorkel, Pirate, Dive and Beg are fishing styles there, Thirty counts the fish a large male may eat in a day, and October is when the bears head for their dens.

  • For a hibernation or winter animals unit, print Dens, Cubs and Seasons; for younger readers, stay with Easy Bear Words.

Questions and answers

Is there a printable bear crossword puzzle with answers?

Yes. Press Print and the puzzle comes out with its clues, then the answer key on a last sheet of its own. It is free, with no sign-up.

What grade is the bear crossword puzzle for?

Easy Bear Words suits grades 2 to 5, with answers such as Cub, Den, Paw and Honey. The five themed sets suit grades 4 to 8, with answers such as Plantigrade and Subspecies. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

How many kinds of bears are there?

Eight species are alive today: the polar bear, brown bear, American black bear, Asian black bear, sun bear, sloth bear, spectacled bear and giant panda. The grizzly is a brown bear, and the koala is not a bear at all.

Do bears really hibernate?

Most species spend the winter in a den in a long period of hibernation, up to 100 days. The word was once kept for deep sleepers such as rodents; it now includes bears.

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