Sloth Bear Facts for Kids. A sloth bear died after it was caught in a snare set up by poachers in a forest fringe area in the Palamaner range. So there is not much competition for the bears. They primarily eat termites and ants and have also been called "labiated bears" because of their long lower lip and palate used for sucking insects. Apart from insects, sloth bears feast on a variety of fruits such as ‘Palu’ (Manilkara hexandra) , ‘Weera’ (Drypetes sepiaria), etc. All five living species are limited to the lowland tropical forests of South and Central America, where they can be found high in the forest canopy sunning, resting, or feeding on leaves. Sloth Bear Facts: The sloth bear is native to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The humidity in the areas where they live often offers tons of termites to feed on. Their diet consists primarily of leafs and buds from select species of tree, including the leafy cecropia tree. These bears are noisy and busy animals. google_ad_channel = "1241201784"; The cubs will ride on their mother’s back until they are about nine months old. The type of food available depends on what season it is and where the bears are living. It used to be thought that sloths ate mostly cecropia leaves because they were often spotted in cecropia trees. The Sloth bear is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); , Carrion (animals they find that are already dead). Because of this, the IUCN Red List labels them as Vulnerable. Sloth bears are large mammals native to India. Sloth bears (Melursus ursinas) are the only species of ursid specifically adapted to feed on insects, especially termites and ants, although they also feed on fruits when available. Diet: Omnivore/Opportunistic Omnivore1 The activity of sloth bears has been documented to be nocturnal and crepuscular.13 This means that most of their activity happens during the night or at dawn/dusk. We studied diets of sloth bears in Royal Chitwan National Park, … To find honey or fruit they can climb about 8 metres (26 feet) up a tree and hang from branches. As animals who consume termites and ants, sloth bears are considered myrmecophagous. In the wild their favourite food is termites. sloth bear diet during the summer may be due to soil hardness during summer, which hinders sloth bears from digging into the termite mounds (Joshi et al. Diet of the Sloth Bear. Humans have not domesticated sloth bears in any way. Diet. In zoos, sloth bears require large enclosures to roam and exercise. Instead, they remain on their mother’s back and she aggressively drives away the predator. These bears are unique in their dietary habits, as their primary food source is insects! The food items stabilization curve showed that 70 scats in summer, and 80 scats in winter, were required to depict the diet of sloth bear adequately. Beetles, grubs and … The bear has a shoulder height of 60 – 90 cm. The leafs that make up much of the sloth’s diet are difficult to digest. Their diet includes fruits, leaves, insects and small lizards. They may eat insects, small lizards and carrion, however, their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots and leaves (including leaves from the cecropia tree). Sloths are wonderful swimmers. People say they can hear the sucking from about 91 metres (300 feet) away! This species feeds primarily on insects, and scientists consider them insectivores. This certainly means they could easily injure or kill humans! The sloth bear is not a sloth at all. Female sloth bears reproduce at different times of year based upon their location. Females with cubs will be more active during the day, likely to avoid potential predators of her cubs that hunt at night. When confronted by humans they will attack and can cause serious injury, or even death. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. part of the diet of sloth bears (40.5%) (Gokula and Varadharajan, 1995). Humans have driven them to extinction in Bangladesh, though these bears also reside in southern Nepal, and Sri Lanka. During non-fruiting season, insects constitute 95 percent of a sloth bear's diet. The sloth bear is relatively small, with long hair and shaggy coat. Unlike brown bears and other bear species, they do not congregate to a single food source. Sloth bears live mainly in tropical areas. 1997, Bar- Sloths eat leaves which are hard to digest. These mammals have multi-chambered stomachs that contain many bacteria that break down plant materials. 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