Actor and comedian Ricky Gervais is backing a new wildlife book which hopes to raise awareness and funds to safeguard threatened bears across the globe.

Remembering Bears is the seventh and latest book in the Remembering Wildlife series which has already documented elephants, rhinos, lions and cheetahs.

A Brown bear with her cub (Tin Man Lee/Remembering Bears)

Gervais endorsed the publication, saying: “A wonderful book that shows how beautiful bears are and just what we have to lose if we don’t stand up for them now. They deserve better.”

Award-winning wildlife film maker Gordon Buchanan has written the foreword to the book, part of a series founded by Margot Raggett which has raised more than £950,000 for conservation through book sales.

There are eight species of bear – American black bears, Andean bears, Asiatic black bears, brown bears, giant pandas, polar bears, sloth bears and sun bears – and all feature in the new book, in images donated by many of the world’s best wildlife photographers.

A polar bear in the icy wilderness (Marsel van Oosten/Remembering Bears)

The International Union for Conservation and Nature lists six of the bears as vulnerable or endangered due to pressures ranging from climate change to human-wildlife conflict – and even those bears of least concern, like brown bears, are at risk of being lost for good in certain countries.

Profits from the book will be donated to initiatives ensuring the future of bears and its stunning images have been donated by 85 of the world’s leading wildlife photographers, including Marsel van Oosten, Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, Greg du Toit, and Daisy Gilardini, with the cover image taken by Morten Jorgensen.