![]() ![]() 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. This feature is sometimes absent, particularly in Sri Lankan specimens. Sloth bear fur is completely black (rusty for some specimens), save for a whitish Y- or V-shaped mark on the chest. The sloth bear is the only bear with long hair on its ears. Their back legs are not very strong, though they are knee-jointed, and allow them to assume almost any position. They have the longest tail in the bear family, which can grow to 6–7 in. Their toe pads are connected by a hairless web. The paws are disproportionately large, and have highly developed, sickle-shaped, blunt claws which measure 4 in (10 cm) in length. The back of the palate is long and broad, as is typical in other ant-eating mammals. In adults, the teeth are usually in poor condition, due to the amount of soil they suck up and chew when feeding on insects. ![]() The premolars and molars are smaller than in other bears, as they do not chew as much vegetation. 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 muzzles are thick and long, with small jaws and bulbous snouts with wide nostrils. Females are smaller than males, and have more fur between the shoulders. 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). ![]() 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 (176 to 423 lb) in males. Sloth bears are distinguished from Asian black bears by their lankier builds, longer, shaggier coats, pale muzzles and white claws. The sloth bear bears evidence of having undergone a convergent evolution similar to that of other ant-eating mammals. Sloth bears probably arose during the mid-Pliocene and evolved in the Indian Subcontinent. theobaldi itself had teeth intermediate in size between sloth bears and other bear species, though its palate was the same size as the former species, leading to the theory that it is the sloth bear's direct ancestor. The fossilized skulls of a bear once named Melursus theobaldi found in the Shivaliks from the early Pleistocene or early Pliocene are thought by certain authors to represent an intermediate stage between sloth bears and ancestral brown bears. A fragment of fossilized humerus from the Pleistocene, found in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool Basin is identical to the modern sloth bears. Sloth bears may have reached their current form in the early Pleistocene, the time when the bear family specialized and dispersed. Fischer called it Chondrorhynchus hirsutus, while Tiedemann called it Ursus longirostris. Iliger called it Prochilus hirsutus, the Greek genus name indicating long lips, while the specific name noted its long and coarse hair. ![]() Meyer (1793) identified it as a bear and called it Melursus lybius, and in 1817, de Blainville called it Ursus labiatus because of the long lips. Initially thought to be related to the South American sloths, Shaw and Nodder in 1791 called the species Bradypus ursinus, noting that it was bear-like, but giving weight to the long claws and the absence of upper middle incisors. These bears have been used as performing pets due to their tameable nature. Historically, humans have drastically reduced their habitat and diminished their population by hunting them for food and products such as their bacula and claws. Sloth bears sometimes attack humans who encroach on their territories. They feed on termites, honeybee colonies, and fruits. Sloth bears breed during spring and early summer and give birth near the beginning of winter. 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. The population isolated in Sri Lanka is considered a subspecies. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral brown bears during the Pleistocene and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through convergent evolution. The Sloth bear ( Melursus ursinus), also known as the Stickney bear or labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bears found wild within the Indian Subcontinent. Francois, a sloth bear in captivity at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. ![]()
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