A total of 9,846 transect lines and quadrates were sampled, which covered 22,623 km2 in size. The people who were involved with interviewing were as many as 2,315 and most of them were used to be hunters or local residents. Up to 3,846 observations on individual bears, footprints, hibernacula, droppings and evidences of food collections were recorded in the field.

The population abundance of bears was estimated at 61,700 heads in their habitats of 2,608,780 km2 and, among them, Asiatic black bears were 46,530, brown bears 14,790 and 380 sun bears respectively (Table 1). There are 100-200 Asiatic black bears (S. t. f.) in Taiwan (Chen, 1996).

A total of 652,086 km2 of habitats were surveyed with sampling areas of 8,561 km2 for the Asiatic black bear in 14 provincial administrative regions. In the field surveys, 2,848 bears and many indirect evidences were observed and recorded. Population densities of the bear were not even in their habitats, fluctuating from 3.8 to 95 heads/1,000 km 2 . The highest population abundance happened in Minshan Mountain of Gansu where 15,600 heads were counted. Daxueshan Mountain of Sichuan and Tibet provided a good habitat for the Asiatic black bear, and 20,000 individuals were estimated there. Populations of Asiatic black bears in Yunnan, Heilongjiang and Shaanxi were not abundant, and only 2,500 heads were estimated in each of the three provinces.

A field survey for brown bears was conducted in 9 provincial administrative regions of north-east, north-west and south-west China. The sampling intensity in 1,956,691 km2 of available habitat was 14,062 km2 . A total of 974 brown bears and other additional indirect evidences were found and recorded. Population densities were estimated from 2.3 to 13.6 heads/1,000 km2. The population density is relatively higher in north-east and south-west China than in the north-west. The population abundance in Tibet contributed the highest numbers of brown bears in China, with 8,450 heads. Population sizes of brown bears in Qilianshan Mountain and Minshan Mountain of Gansu were 1,600 heads, Qinghai 1,250, Daxinganling of Inner Mongolia 1,070, Heilongjiang 1,140 , Xinjiang 760 and Liaoning 320 respectively.