A Sun Bear

Ursus malayanus Bruang (Sumatra name) Maylay Bear Dog Bear (Thailand) Ape Man

The sun bear is a rather small member of the bear family which makes its home in the lowland tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. It is covered with a black coat made of sleek, short hairs. It has a white or yellowish patch on its chest shaped like a half-moon. It has a muzzle which is both yellower and shorter than that of a black bear. Sometimes the light color extends up over the eyes. The long, pointed claws are curved with hairless soles, likely as an adaptive measure to help in climbing trees. The ears of the sun bear are smaller and rounder than those of other bears. The teeth of the sun bear are flatter than those of other bears and the canines are long enough to protrude between the lips.

The omnivorous sun bear lives on a diet consisting mostly of termites, birds, small mammals, and even bits of oil palms, and other commercial crops.

Sun bears are the smallest of all the bears. The adults only weigh up to 145 pounds, and measure at the longest 60 inches.

This bear can be found in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Bangledesh, and many other countries in the Southeastern portions of Asia. However, poaching and deforestration have been slowly eroding the available population and habitat.

As for reproductive habits, there is little available information. Captive breeding has produced such wildly different gestation periods that scientists are not even sure if the sun bear has a mechanism of delayed implantation.