Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Sun Bear

Ursus malayanus

Description:

The sun bear's fur is jet-black, short and sleek with some underwool. There are two whirls on the shoulders, from where the hair radiates in all directions. There is a crest on the sides of the neck and a whorl in the centre of the breast patch. There is always a more or less crescent-shaped pale patch on the breast that varies individually in colour ranging from buff, cream or dirty white to ochreous. The skin is naked on the upper lip. The tongue is long and protrusible. The ears are small and rounded, broad at the base and capable of very little movement. The front legs are somewhat bowed with the paws turned inwards, and the claws are black.

Habitat:

Sun bears are found in the tropical rainforest of Southeast Asia ranging from north-eastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam to southern Yunnan Province in China, and on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. They now occur very patchily through much of their former range, and have been extirpated from many areas, especially in mainland Southeast Asia.

Notes:

Spotted in a zoo in Borneo.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

3 Comments

AliceGreenup
AliceGreenup 12 years ago

I know it's barbaric, i hope to work against this kind of thing once i complete my zoology degree. This zoo was in Borneo too. It's unfortunate that such lovely animals have to be kept in zoos, he looked so sombre.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

I agree, but better there then in a bile farm.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Lovely photo. It's so sad that these are now threatened in the wild because of the barbaric practice of bile farming. http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2009/...

AliceGreenup
Spotted by
AliceGreenup

Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia

Spotted on Dec 27, 2011
Submitted on Dec 27, 2011

Related Spottings

Ursus thibetanus Polar bear Brown bear Black bear

Nearby Spottings

Flying Squirrel Long-tailed Macaque White-crowned Hornbill Banded Pig

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team