• Scientific Name : Melursus ursinus
  • The sloth bear is a myrmecophagous (ant eating) bear species native to the Indian sub continent
  • It feeds of fruits, ants and termites
  • Sloth bears adults are a medium sized species though weight can scale up to 124 kg and males up to 192 kg.
  • Sloth bear muzzles are thick and long, with small jaws and bulbous snouts with wide nostrils.  They have long lower lips which can be stretched over the outer edge of their noses, and lack upper incisors, thus allowing them to suck up large numbers of insects.
  • Sloth bear fur is completely black save for a whitish ‘Y’ or ‘V’ shaped mark on the chest.
  • Adult sloth bears may travel in pairs.
  • Males are often observed to be gentle with cubs.  They walk in slow shambling motion, with their feet being set down in a noisy, flapping motion.  They are capable of  galloping faster than running human.
  • Sloth bears are expert hunters of termites and ants, which they locate by smell.
  • Bengal tigers occasionally prey on sloth bears.
  • The sloth bear’s global range includes India, the Terai of Nepal, temperate climatic zones of Bhutan and Sri Lanka. It occurs in a wide range of habitats including moist and dry tropical forests, savannahs, scrublands and grasslands below 1,500 m (4,900 ft) on the Indian subcontinent, and below 300 m (980 ft) in Sri Lanka’s dry forests. It is regionally extinct in Bangladesh.