Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Ursidae > Melursus > Melursus ursinusMelursus ursinus (Sloth Bear)Synonyms: Bradypus ursinus; Prochilus ursinus; Ursus ursinus The sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), also known as the labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous bear species native to 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 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 who encroach on their territories. His |
Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) Unique (100) Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) Unique & Vulnerable (100) ED Score: 16.5 EDGE Score: 4.25 |
Adult Weight [1] | 220.463 lbs (100.00 kg) | Birth Weight [1] | 400 grams |  | Diet [2] | Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Herbivore | Diet - Fruit [2] | 10 % | Diet - Invertibrates [2] | 70 % | Diet - Plants [2] | 20 % | Forages - Ground [2] | 100 % |  | Female Maturity [1] | 3 years | Male Maturity [1] | 3 years |  | Gestation [1] | 6 months 18 days | Litter Size [1] | 2 | Litters / Year [3] | 1 | Maximum Longevity [1] | 33 years | Nocturnal [4] | Yes | Snout to Vent Length [3] | 5.576 feet (170 cm) | Weaning [1] | 76 days |
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Name |
Countries |
Ecozone |
Biome |
Species |
Report |
Climate |
Land Use |
Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Central Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Chhota-Nagpur dry deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Eastern highlands moist deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests |
India, Nepal |
Indo-Malayan |
Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests |
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Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests |
Bhutan, India, Nepal |
Indo-Malayan |
Temperate Coniferous Forests |
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Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests |
India, Bhutan, Nepal |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Himalayan subtropical pine forests |
India, Bhutan, Nepal |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests |
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Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests |
Bangladesh, India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests |
Myanmar, India, Bangladesh |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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North Western Ghats moist deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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North Western Ghats montane rain forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Northern dry deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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South Western Ghats montane rain forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Sri Lanka dry-zone dry evergreen forests |
Sri Lanka |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests |
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Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands |
Bhutan, India, Nepal |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands |
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Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests |
India |
Indo-Malayan |
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests |
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Name |
IUCN Category |
Area acres |
Location |
Species |
Website |
Climate |
Land Use |
Bandhavgarh National Park |
II |
89210 |
Madhya Pradesh, India |
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Eravikulam National Park |
II |
39436 |
Kerala, India |
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Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary |
IV |
223475 |
Madhya Pradesh, India |
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Gomardah Sanctuary |
IV |
72320 |
Chhattishgarh, India |
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Indravati Tiger Reserve |
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Chhattishgarh, India |
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Kanha Tiger Reserve National Park |
II |
223971 |
Madhya Pradesh, India |
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Kudremukh National Park |
II |
202772 |
Karnataka, India |
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Manas National Park |
II |
135025 |
Assam, India |
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Namdapha National Park |
II |
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Arunachal Pradesh, India |
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Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve |
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1364022 |
India |
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Palamau Tiger Reserve National Park |
II |
329056 |
Bihar, India |
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Rajaji National Park |
II |
196637 |
Uttaranchal, India |
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Royal Chitwan National Park |
II |
292637 |
Nepal |
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Simlipal Tiger Reserve National Park |
II |
103465 |
Orissa, India |
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Tamor Pingla Sanctuary |
IV |
148780 |
Chhattishgarh, India |
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Wilpattu National Park |
II |
320298 |
Sri Lanka |
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Name |
Location |
Endemic |
Species |
Website |
Himalaya |
Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan |
No |
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Indo-Burma |
Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam |
No |
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Western Ghats and Sri Lanka |
India, Sri Lanka |
No |
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Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774 ♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027 ♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109 ♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org♦ 5Feeding ecology of sloth bears in a disturbed area in central India, H.S. Bargali, Naim Akhtar,and N.P.S. Chauhan, Ursus 15(2):212-217 (2004) ♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics. ♦ 7"Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review", MIKE SHANAHAN, SAMSON SO, STEPHEN G. COMPTON and RICHARD CORLETT, Biol. Rev. (2001), 76, pp. 529572
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database |
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0
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