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| Sun Bear |
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Bear Planet Poll
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What you think when is okay to kill bears?
Total votes: 3996
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Sun Bears
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Sun bears (Malayan) are the least well known of all bear species and they have
two scientific names currently in use Ursus malayanus and Herlarctos malayanus
Historically sun bears were found in eastern Tibet and Sichuan China.
Pleistocene fossils were found on the island of Java. However they are
no longer found on the island of Java.
Sun Bear - Malayan (Ursus/Helarctos malayanus)
sometime called simple Sun Bear (picture right), the smallest of all bears is
found in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia.
It is a smallest and best representative of its family adapted to
an tree-inhabiting way of life.
The malayan sun bear has a mustart-colored crescent on its chest
and close-cropped brown or black fur.
An attained full growth animal reaches a body length
from approximately 100 to 150 centimeters.
The weight varies between 27 and 65 kilograms,
whereby the males become clearly heavier than the females.
It is mainly active at night and rests during the day on a platform
of branches, which it makes high in the trees.
They are skilful climbers and agile as a monkey. They have a very long tongue
which is probably an adaptation for extracting hiney and insect from deep crevices in trees.
The insects are the main part of the food but also fruits,
coconuts and other plant material belongs to Sun Bear food.
Sun Bear has a white spot
in the center of the chest,
the function of which is uncler.
They rarely consume also small vertebrate animals such as rodents,
birds and lizards, sometimes also carrion.
Very little is known about the reproductive biology of ths species;
in the wild it seems that cubs may be bornat any time of year.
In captive animals, gestation periods have been found to range from 95 to 240
days and, as with other bears, this is the result of delayed implantation and
gives little idea as to the females most receptive periods.
Litters contain one or two young, each weighing 325g.
Sun bear habitat, its forest home is warm all year round. Therefore the sun bear does not
need to go into den over winter.
Today the sun bears distribution is limited to the larger areas of native forest
and the surviving populations are mainly small in size. They learn to avoid
gardens and fruit plantations, but often come into conflict with humans in those areas when
natural foods become scarce.
In some places sun bears are considered good pets but they often become
uncontrollable after 3 or 4 years and are then either abondoned or killed.
Because his Asian tropical rainforest homes are being destroyed at an
alarming rate the sun bear may be declining faster than any other bear and
will probably disappear from some areas.
In the wild this bears is often cited as one of the most dangerous animals of
its range.
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Sun Bear Facts
- Name: Sun Bear (Ursus or Helarctos malayanus))
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
- Class: Mammalia
- Subclass: Theria
- Order: Carnivora
- Family: Ursidae
- Length of life: About 25 years in zoos. In the wild unknown
- Size: 120 to 150 cm
- Weight: 27 to 65 kg males
Males are 10 to 20 per cent larget than females
- Habitat: Lowland tropical rainforests
- Diet: Termites, small mammals, palm trees, bees' nests, birds
- Gestation: 3 to 6 months
- Cubs: 1 to 2 cubs
- SubFamily: Ursinae
- Genus: Helarctos
- Distribution: Southheast Asia: Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Burma
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