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.
