Species Fact Profile: Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus)

                                                                    Sloth Bear

Melursus ursinus (Shaw, 1791)

Range: South Asia – India, Bangladesh (possibly extirpated – last confirmed sighting here was in the late 1990’s), Nepal, Bhutan – and Sri Lanka.  Unverified historical reports in Myanmar

Habitat: Tropical Lowland Forest (preference for dry forest with rocky outcrops, but will also occur in wet forest), Scrub, and Grassland.  Usually occur below 1500 meters elevation, but sometimes as high as 2000 meters

Diet: Primarily insects (especially termites), also leaves, honey, fruit, flowers, and opportunistically carrion

Social Grouping: Primarily solitary, but will congregate around plentiful food sources. 

Reproduction:  Mating can occur at any time of year, but peaks May through and July.  Pregnancy lasts 4-7 months, with the variability caused by delayed implantation.  1-2 cubs (rarely 3) are born, usually in a cave or other shelter on the ground. Cubs are blind for the first 3 weeks of life and leave the den at 4-5 weeks of age.  Males do no participate in parental care.  Cubs remain with their mother until they are 2-3 years old, often riding on their mother’s back for the first 6-9 months.   

Lifespan: Up to 40 Years (Zoo)

Conservation Status: IUCN Vulnerable, CITES Appendix I.

• Males weigh 80-140 kilograms and stand 60-90 centimeters at the shoulder, measure 1.5-1.9 meters long.  Females are 30-40% lighter at 55-95 kilograms
• Shaggy black fur, especially around the shoulders, with some individuals displaying some brown or grey, which may give a cinnamon appearance.  There is often a light-colored patch of white or yellow fur in the shape of a U or Y on the chest.  It has been suggested that Asian bears possess these markings as a warning to tigers – if the tiger can see the marking, it knows the bear is standing up and facing it, and therefore not as easy victim.  The muzzle is pale with very short hair.  The tail is unusually long for a bear (15-18 centimeters long).  The ears are also larger and floppier than those of other bears, with long hair on them
• Dentition is unusual among bears.  The molars and premolars are relatively small, while the canine teeth are large, presumably for defense.  They are missing the top two front incisors, which allows the bears to more easily suck up insects.
• They are the only bears to regularly carry the young on their back, being equipped with an extra shag of fur on the back which forms a saddle (many other ant- and termite-eating mammals, such as giant anteaters, carry their young on their back.
• Primarily nocturnal, with poor senses of sight and hearing but a well-developed sense of smell.  During the day, they sleep in caves and other shelters.  Mothers with cubs may be more diurnal than nocturnal to reduce exposure of their cubs to potential predators
• Poor climbers than many other bears (though still capable of climbing) because of their long, curved claws.  Will climb to feed or to rest, but not to escape predators.  Young bears are better climbers than adults.  They are decent swimmers
• They are the only bear species that feeds primarily on insects, and have several unique adaptations.  Nests are ripped open with the long claws up to 10 centimeters long (feet are turned inwards, which while causing an awkward gait perhaps makes the bears more efficient diggers), and then the bear blows away loose dust and soil.  The long, flexible snout is then positioned over the opening forming a tube, and the bear begins to vacuum insects into its mouth.  The bear has the ability of voluntarily open and close its nostrils, keeping dust and insects from going up the nose.  When feeding, they may be heard up to 185 meters away.
• Mothers feed their cubs a regurgitated mixture of fruit and honey, which hardens into a dark yellow mass that some local peoples regard as a delicacy, called “Bear’s Bread”
• Home ranges are marked with claw marks, but intruders seem to be tolerated, or at least not excluded.  Several males may trail a receptive female but not fight with each other
• Potential predators include tigers, leopards, and dholes.  If threatened, they will stand erect and use their clawed paws as weapons, or may charge.  Sloth bears have a reputation of being unusually aggressive, possibly a response to living alongside tigers
• Early scientists thought that this species was more closely related to sloths than to bears, with its large, curved claws and its shaggy coat
• Two recognized subspecies: M. u. ursinus on the mainland and M. u. inornatus on Sri Lanka.  The Sri Lankan sloth bear is smaller with shorter fur, sometimes lacks the white chest markings
• Habitat loss is the primary cause for decline, though they benefit from sharing protected habitat with several more high-profile conservation species, such as tiger, Asian elephant, and Indian rhinoceros.  The next major threat is hunting, especially for their gall bladders, which are highly sought after in traditional medicine they are also hunted for local demand.  An indirect source of decline has been the destruction of termite mounds in order to obtain the fine soil, which is desirable for building tennis courts.
• Sloth bears have historically been captured and trained by the nomadic Qualanders of India, who traveled the region with their dancing bears, a practice which still continues today, though not nearly as commonly.  The practice involved putting a ring through the nose of the bear, removing its teeth, and encouraging it to dance, often through coercion.  Bear dancing is now banned, with efforts to steer former handlers into other professions
• Reputation of being very aggressive towards humans, with several attacks reports, less likely to flee if cornered than many other bears.  British authorities said that natives feared the sloth bear more than tigers, with survivors of attacks being highly disfigured.  One particularly famous sloth bear was the Sloth Bear of Mysore, India, responsible for the deaths of at least twelve people and mauling two dozen others in 1957, before being shot and killed by hunter Kenneth Anderson.  Some of the bear’s victims were partially eaten