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Range and Habitat: The sun bear ranges from northeast
India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Yunnan and Szechwan
Provinces of China south to Sumatra, Malaysia and Brunei.
Habits and Adaptations: The sun bear is so named for the
yellow crescent on its chest. However, don't be fooled by their
name! The sun bear is actually nocturnal, spending the day sleeping
in trees 2 to 7 m (6 to 23 ft.) above the forest floor. At night,
the sun bear forages for food. Fitting its arboreal habits, the
Malays sometimes call sun bears "basindo nan Tenggil",
which means "he who likes to sit high."
Diet: Like other bear species, the sun bear is omnivorous.
The southeast Asian tropical forests provide a rich diversity
of food for these bears including insects, succulent plants, honey,
small birds and mammals.
Sun bears use their claws to tear apart trees, looking for bee
nests and insects. Palmite, the soft growing point of the coconut
palm, is also a favored food item. Sun bears consume termites
by digging up their nests and licking the insects off their paws.
Breeding and Maturation: The sun bear has a gestation
period of 95-96 days in captivity. 1 or 2 cubs are born in a litter
and each weighs approximately 325 gm (11 oz). Unlike other ursids,
these bears do not hibernate.
Reliable data is not available on the longevity of sun bears
in the wild, but the wild life span is probably shorter than its
life span in zoos. In captivity, sun bears may live into their
twenties.
Miscellaneous: In some Asian countries, people try to
keep sun bears as pets. This practice is reinforced by a religious
belief in some cultures that the care of pets earns "religious
merit." However, the charming cubs soon become irascible
and unhandleable. Unfortunately for these former pets, they are
often difficult to place and find their way into the meat markets.
Sun bears do pose problems for coconut plantations. The bears
destroy the trees by removing and eating the succulent growing
buds.
Little field research has been conducted on the sun bear, in
part due to the difficulties of studying nocturnal animals in
tropical forests. Conservationists believe that although the sun
bear is widespread in its range, it is not abundant anywhere.
It is listed as Appendix I by CITES (Convention on International
Trade of Endangered Species), the highest category of protection
in the international market. The IUCN (International Union for
Conservation of Nature) lists the sun bear as data deficient meaning
that not enough information is known about the species population
numbers in the wild to determine the extent of current threat
to its wild population.
The sun bear is valued for medicinal uses of its flesh and organs
by some cultures. The blood, bones, teeth, liver and gall bladder
are used in folk medicine to cure a variety of ailments. The gall
bladder is believed by some to render endurance and strength and
by others to be a cure for many medical ailments. Unfortunately,
unregulated harvesting and loss of habitat may jeopardize the
existence of this species.
Bear Links:
www.bearden.org
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