Sloth Bear

About this species

Weight

Females 55–105kg, males 80–145kg

Diet

Largely insects, sucked up through the lips

Habitat

Moist and dry tropical forest, scrub, savanna and grassland below about 1,500m

Litter size

1–2 cubs, rarely 3

Gestation

About 210 days

The sloth bear is a medium-sized bear with a long, shaggy, unkempt black coat and a whitish Y- or V-shaped mark on the chest. Its long, thick muzzle ends in a bulbous snout with wide nostrils, and its long lower lip can be stretched over the nose. It has no upper front incisors, which leaves a gap through which it sucks up large numbers of insects. Its cheek teeth are smaller than other bears', since it chews little plant food, and adult teeth are often worn down by the soil it sucks up while feeding. The chest mark may serve as a threat display towards tigers (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range the sloth bear walks with a slow, shambling gait, but it can gallop faster than a person runs and climbs well, both to feed and to rest. Rather than flee, it tends to stand its ground, which makes surprise meetings dangerous. Bears mark territory by scraping and rubbing against trees and make a range of huffs, barks and screams. In India they mate in April to June, and one or two cubs are born in December or early January in a cave or under boulders (Wikipedia, general species account).

Sloth bears occur across much of India, from the Western Ghats to the Himalayan foothills and from the Aravalli hills to the floodplains of Assam. The only national estimate, from a 2006 survey, put the population at 6,000–11,000, around half of them outside protected areas, and found the species locally extinct in 35 forest areas (Yoganand et al., as reported by Mongabay India 2020). Attacks on people, often at forest edges in the early morning or evening, are a serious problem: 166 were recorded around Kanha and Pench in 2001–2015.

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)