Sun Bear

The sun bear is the smallest of the world bear species, native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, from northeastern India through Indochina, Sumatra and Borneo, named for a pale, crescent-shaped patch of fur on its chest that resembles a rising sun. It has short, sleek black fur, an unusually long tongue and powerful curved claws well suited to climbing and to tearing open logs and termite mounds. Sun bears are highly arboreal, spending much of their time in trees, where they build nest-like platforms to rest, and they feed on a varied diet of insects, honey, fruit and small vertebrates, using their long tongue to extract honey and insect larvae from tight crevices, a habit that has also earned the species the nickname honey bear. Largely solitary and elusive, sun bears are among the least studied bear species in the wild. Widespread deforestation across Southeast Asia, along with poaching for body parts used in traditional medicine, has caused significant population decline, and the species is classified as vulnerable.