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Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
Sloth bears are not as well-known as black bears and brown bears in the bear family, and polar bears are well-known, but it is often the ones who do not like to squeak and are the real powerhouses.
On the surface, it looks light and windy, silly, not very smart, standing in front of the tiger, not tall enough, not strong, but it dares to argue with the tiger, and it does not see it suffer in the battle.
What is the strength of the sloth bear? Is it really the responsibility of the sloth bear that has repeatedly injured people in India? Why did such a powerful sloth bear become the "pistachio" of the Indians?
«【Chase Attachment Old Tiger Hit】»
The sloth bear has dark and shiny hair, and it is very fluffy, with a "white scarf" tied on its chest, and its whole body is full of fashionable trends, and its small eyes are full of innocence and innocence.
Judging from the appearance alone, the sloth bear does not seem to have the strength to compete with the tiger, but it turns out that "the bear cannot be disguised".
In November 2020, a Bengal tiger hunted its prey today, a small-looking sloth bear, in India's Tadoba Tiger Reserve.
At first the tiger had gained the upper hand, crushing the sloth bear to the ground and biting its neck, but after a while, the tiger let go of the sloth bear.
It is estimated that the hair on the sloth bear is long and thick, and it is difficult for the tiger to bite through.
The sloth bear's black fur not only serves as a defensive function, but also protects against the cold, and although it lives in the tropics, it does not have to worry about the cold winters, but it has evolved a thick coat.
This is mainly because the sloth bear likes to live in caves near rivers, the temperature is relatively low, and it is also a nocturnal animal, which comes out to forage at night, and the temperature in the forest will drop a lot at night.
Coupled with its love of mountaineering, its thick black fur can provide a lot of help to sloth bears.
Since then, the tiger has been following the sloth bear, and there have been many conflicts between the two, but the tiger has not been able to take the sloth bear down, and even was driven into the water by the sloth bear.
The Bengal tiger and the sloth bear were evenly matched, and the tiger had no way to take it down for a while, so he had to leave in a huff.
The size of the sloth bear is considered medium among the bears, and the strong male can weigh up to 280 catties, and a hundred catties are more common, while the female generally does not exceed 180 catties, and its length is about one meter six.
These physical conditions are still far behind those of the Bengal tiger.
And in terms of food chain relationship, they have a predatory relationship, but the number of times that tigers prey on sloth bears is much less than that of other bears, so why can sloth bears fight alone with Bengal tigers for so long?
The sloth bear can "win" mainly by being open-minded, regardless of it, no matter how powerful the natural enemy is, the sloth bear will rush up in one word.
When it faces a predator, it basically does not choose to flee first, and only fights first.
«【·“ Is the sloth bear really lazy?
But the name "sloth bear" is not domineering when you hear it, and it will make people mistakenly think that it is the same "lazy" as a sloth, and it does not like to move, but the origin of its name does have something to do with sloths.
When the sloth bear was first spotted, it was hanging upside down from a tree, similar to the sloth's habits, hence the name.
And the nails of the sloth bear are very similar to the sloth, the sloth is mainly divided into two toes and three toes, after the sloth bear appeared, it was classified under the sloth genus, thinking that it was a five-toed sloth.
Later, after careful research, it was found that there was a big oolong, and the sloth bear was reclassified under the bear family.
The sloth bear is not "lazy" at all, it is recognized as one of the most dangerous and aggressive bears, their claws are large, and their nails are ten centimeters.
However, this is not its main attack weapon, the sloth bear's claws have not evolved so maturely, and its agility is relatively poor, and it can only do simple bending movements.
But these claws are great for digging termite burrows and are also great for climbing trees.
Termites are one of the sloth bear's favorite food, the sloth bear's mouth and nose structure is very special, very similar to the pig's nose, and the only place on the face with less hair can reach into the anthill to perform its "sucking method".
Sloth bears are omnivores, and in addition to termites, they are also very honey-loving and can smell beehives far away with their keen sense of smell.
But in general, sloth bears prefer vegetarian food, especially at the turn of spring and summer, when fruits and vegetables account for more than half of the sloth bear's daily diet.
Its teeth are also unusually sharp, with a bite force of more than 500 kilograms, which is slightly better than that of the Bengal tiger.
The sloth bear can run at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour, although it is far less than the Bengal tiger, but it is enough, after all, the sloth bear will not choose to run away at all, and there are natural predators who are directly on it.
It is better at using the power of its arms to pounce, and it has a very strict "three steps" when facing it, first opening its mouth, then bowing its body slightly, and making a warning roar from its mouth, and the fluffy fur on its body will make it look very fierce, and then the sloth bear enters a state of battle.
Many predators who have thoughts about sloth bears will be frightened by this trick, and they will lose a section in momentum.
«【Indian "pistachio"·]»
The fierce sloth bear not only dares to fight against all kinds of natural predators in nature, but it is also the bear with the highest number of injuries and the most frequency of all bears.
In 2022, a husband and wife were ambushed and killed in India's Panna district, a one-sided attack that lasted for four hours.
In May 2018, a taxi driver in India found a sloth bear drinking water in a roadside pond while picking up passengers.
Sensing the danger, the sloth bear attacked him, killing the driver and bringing the sloth bear back to the center for his previous injuries.
Why didn't the driver listen to the dissuasion and have to get close to the sloth bear?
Even if they are as fierce as sloth bears, they will not escape the fate of being hunted by humans, but not for food, but for juggling, and around the 13th century, there were people in India who hunted sloth bear cubs.
They are trained to perform acrobatics at a very young age for entertainment, hence the sloth bear, which is why they are also called "dancing bears".
Sloth bears that have lived in the wild for a long time are easy to domesticate, and these captured sloth bear cubs often have to go through a series of beatings and starvation before they can be trained to become "pistachios" for Indians.
In order to get more sloth bear cubs, poachers will poison the female sloth bear first, and then steal the cubs, and it is precisely because of this excessive hunting behavior that the sloth bear has become one of the endangered animals.
But the sloth bear itself is a very vindictive, vindictive animal, sometimes the tiger will sneak up on their cubs, and the mother bear will also fight with the tiger desperately.
There are also many incidents of sloth bears hurting people, one is because some criminals have stolen their cubs, but humans appear in their territory, so that they feel threatened and will take the initiative to attack.
They even killed 48 people in five years, which is as terrifying as tigers.
But as their habitat has shrunk, so has the sloth bear's population, and in 2021, it was listed as a national second-class protected animal.
Reference:
Global Network "A Couple in India Was Killed by a Bear Attack, Rescue Team Captured After Giving Bear a Sedative", 2022-6-6
Global Network "Tiger Attacks Sloth Bear in a Protected Area in India, Sloth Bear Repeatedly Fails to Counterattack", 2020-11-25
Upstream News "Indian Man and Bear Selfie Bitten to Death, Many People Don't Dare to Save Each Other by Watching the Video", 2018-5-10