Malayan sun bear

Facts

IUCN VULNERABLE (VU)

Facts about this animal

The Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest of the eight living bear species. It's head-body length is about 1.2 –1,5 m; height at shoulder ca. 70 cm; and it weighs about 25–65 kg.

Sun bears do not hibernate. They are predominantly nocturnal and spend much of the day sleeping or sunbathing in trees.

Mating may occur at any time of the year. Gestation lasts 90-110 days and either one or two tiny cubs will be born. The cubs remain with their mother for quite some time, learning how to find food and fend for themselves. They reach sexual maturity at between three and four years of age.

Sun bears are omnivorous, that means they feed on both plants and animals like smaller mammals, birds, fish, rodents, fruit, honey and berries. They often climbs in search of food, using its long claws to tear into bee nests and termite mounds.

Did you know?
that, despite threats from habitat loss and hunting, Malayan sun bear remains one of the most neglected large mammal species in Southeast Asia, and the least known bear species in the world (Servheen 1999)?

Factsheet
Class	MAMMALIA
Order	CARNIVORA
Suborder	FISSIPEDIA
Family	URSIDAE
Name (Scientific)	Helarctos malayanus
Name (English)	Malayan sun bear
Name (French)	Ours des cocotiers, Ours malais
Name (German)	Malaienbär
Name (Spanish)	Oso del sol, Oso malayo
Local names	Bahasa: Beruang madu Malay: Bruang, Basindo nan tenggil
CITES Status	Appendix I
CMS Status	Not listed

Photo Copyright by
Ryan E. Poplin

Distribution

Distribution
Range	Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam
Habitat	Lowland tropical forest
Wild population	Because of its shy, secretive nature, and because it lives in dense tropical forest, few is kwown about this species. But numbers are declining because of habitat destruction and poaching for bear parts used in exotic foods, medicines, or aphrodisiacs (Mills and Servheen 1991).
Zoo population	126 reported to ISIS

In the Zoo

How this animal should be transported

For air transport, Container Note 72 of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.

Find this animal on ZooLex

Photo Copyright by
Frank C. Mueller

Why do zoos keep this animal

The sun bear is rated data deficient by IUCN but its habitat it rapidly dwindling in many places, being used for subsistence farming or being replaced by oil palm plantations. Zoos therefore keep the sun bear as an ambassador species for South-East Asia's threatened lowland rainforests.

Through coordinated breeding programmes zoos aim at maintaining a self-sustaining reserve population of the species.

Finally, zoos may also come into the position of having to take care of illegally traded sun bears which were confiscated by the customs or CITES authorities. As such trade affects mainly bear cubs, it is almost never possible to return confiscated animals to the wild.

How this animal should be kept

Traditional bear enclosures are often quite inadequate, and transforming or replacing old enclosures requires a lot of space and major investments. Many zoos have therefore reduced the number of bear species kept, to provide more space and higher quality enclosures for just one or two species.

Existing enclosures of less than 100 m² should be given up as soon as possible. For two or three compatible non-breeding adults the enclosure should have a size of at least 300 m². For a breeding pair two enclosures of at least 300 m² each should be available.

Individual sleeping / cubbing dens of 6 m² are required. If the climatic conditions do not allow for giving the bears daily access to the outdoor enclosure all year round, the indoor space should be at least 12 m² per adult.

The enclosure should be furnished with ample climbing opportunities and large hollow trees or other cavities to retreat. In larger enclosures, natural soil with grass cover is recommended. Older, small enclosures usually have a concrete floor which should at least in part be covered with a more suitable substrate such as bark chips.

Zoo-born bear cubs should not be hand-reared as a matter of routine. Failure of females to rear cubs usually occurs due to disturbance; every effort should be made to avoid the female being disturbed. If a cub is abandoned, or the mother has died, it should be considered on a case-by-case basis whether hand-rearing is the best option for the individual or whether euthanasia is a more humane.