Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The idea of Rocky Mountain bears roaming Mount Everest is a geographic impossibility. Rocky Mountain bears—typically referring to grizzly bears and black bears native to North America's Rocky Mountains—are separated from the Himalayas by thousands of miles and entirely different ecosystems. Mount Everest, straddling Nepal and China, hosts species adapted to extreme altitude, such as snow leopards, Himalayan black bears, and red pandas. The confusion may stem from the shared term "mountain," but the continents, climates, and faunal histories are worlds apart.