Habitat

• The sun bear thrives in the hot and humid lowland tropical  where it rains morrain forestse than 100 inches (254 cm) a year and temperatures stay constant around 78 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
• They spend most of their life in trees where they can forage for a huge variety of fruits and nuts year-round.

Distribution

• Today the sun bear exists in the forests throughout southeast Asia from northern Burma and Bangladesh, south and east across Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand and south to Malaysia and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
• Because of large scale habitat destruction, it is likely that their range has been reduced in northern and western regions.

Physical Characteristics

Color

• Sun bears have short, sleek and dense black fur.
• Their thick coat may be hot in the tropical humidity, but it protects them from dirt, mud, and insects.

Size

• Male bears weigh approximately 100 pounds (45 kg), the smallest bear species.

Features

• Has a long tongue to extract honey from beehives.

Diet

• Sun bears are omnivores and they will eat anything edible that they can find in the rain forest: from fruit and honey to snails, eggs, lizards, and rodents.
• They are very good at skimming through the jungle to find any kinds of food they can get their paws on.
• They particularly love honey and use their long, narrow tongue to collect it.

Behavior

Daily Activity

• Sun bears are very good tree climbers because that is where they find most of their food.
• They usually spend most of their day sleeping and sunbathing in nests that they make in trees.
• After napping through the day, they spend much of their night foraging for food.

Hibernation

• Sun bears do not hibernate because they live in such a warm climate and can remain active all year.

Reproduction

• Breeding occurs at any time of the year and therefore cubs are born at any time of the year.
• They usually give birth to a pair of cubs in a remote part of the forest. The cubs are tiny when they are born and their skin is nearly transparent.
• They are raised on the ground, under branches, and heavy cover until they are strong enough to climb trees on their own.
• They stay with their mother for at least a year in order to learn how to survive in the rain forest.
• In the sun bear family, the father actually remains as part of the family group.

People and Sun Bears

• Because there is so little that scientists really know about sun bears, it is difficult to implement any conservation plans.
• It is known, however, that habitat loss, logging, hunting for the illegal trade in bear parts, and conflicts with humans are exerting significant impacts throughout the bears' range and threaten its survival.
• Logging not only immediately destroys the bears' habitat, it also changes the climate and causes the surrounding forests to become more dry, which can also increase the frequency of forest fires.
• Laws have been written to protect the sun bear, but they have not been enforced.
• Because many people that live near the bears' habitat are poor and starving, they are willing to capture and sell them as pets.