Sloth Bear

The Sloth Bear

Information
Write the firs The  sloth bear  ( Melursus ursinus ), also known as the  Stickney Bear  or  labiated bear, [3]  is a  nocturnal   insectivorous  species of  bear  found wild within the  Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral  brown bears  during the  Pleistocene  and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through  convergent evolution. The population isolated in Sri Lanka is considered as a subspecies. Unlike brown and black bears, sloth bears have lankier builds, long shaggy coats that form a  mane  around the face, long sickle-shaped claws, and a specially adapted lower lip and palate used for sucking insects. Sloth bears breed during spring and early summer and give birth near the beginning of winter. They feed on termites, honeybee colonies and fruits. Sloth bears sometimes attack humans that encroach on their  territory. Historically, humans have drastically reduced their habitat and diminished their population by hunting them for food and products such as their  baculum  and claws. These bears have been used as performing pets due to their tameable nature. t section of your page here.

Height and Weight
Write the second  Sloth bears are distinguished from  Asian black bears  by their lankier builds, longer, shaggier coat, pale muzzle and white claws. [7]  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 the nose, and lack upper incisors, thus allowing them to suck up large numbers of insects. The premolars and molars are smaller than in other bears, as they do not chew as much vegetation. In adults, the teeth are usually in poor condition, due to the amount of dirt they suck up and chew when feeding on insects. [8]  The back of the palate  is long and broad, as is typical in other ant-eating mammals. [6]  The paws are disproportionately large, and have highly developed, sickle shaped blunt claws which measure 4 inches in length. Their toe pads are connected by a hairless web. They have the longest  tail  in the bear family, which can grow to 6–7 inches. [8] Their back legs are not very strong, though they are knee-jointed, and allow the sloth bear to assume almost any position. [9]  The ears are very large and floppy. Sloth bear fur is completely black (rusty for some specimens), save for a whitish Y or V shaped mark on the chest. [8]  This feature is sometimes absent, particularly in Sri Lankan specimens. [6]  This feature, which is also present in Asian black bears and  sun bears, is thought to serve as a threat display, as all three species are  sympatric  with  tigers. [6]  The coat is long, shaggy and unkempt, despite the relatively warm enivronment the species is found in, and is particularly heavy behind the neck and between the shoulders, forming a mane which can be 30 cm (12 in) long. [6] [8]  The belly and underlegs are almost bare. Adult sloth bears are medium-sized bears, weighing around 130 kg (290 lb) on average, though weight can range variously from 55 to 124 kg (121 to 273 lb) in females and from 80 to 192 kg (180 to 423 lb) in males. [10] [11] [12]  They are 60–90 cm (2–3 ft) high at the shoulder, and have a body length of 1.4–1.9 m (4.6–6.3 ft). [8] [13] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[14] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[15]  Females are smaller than males, and have more fur between the shoulders. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-hunt_9-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[9] section of your page here.