page_title: Sun bear
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Sun bear / Distribution and habitat
caption_attribution_description: English: Sepilok, Sabah: Sun bear in the "Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre"
context_page_description: The sun bear is a species in the family Ursidae occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly 70 centimetres at the shoulder and weighing 25–65 kilograms. It is stockily built, with large paws, strongly curved claws, small rounded ears and a short snout. The fur is generally jet-black, but can vary from grey to red. Sun bears get their name from the characteristic orange to cream coloured chest patch. Its unique morphology—inward-turned front feet, flattened chest, powerful forelimbs with large claws—suggests adaptations for climbing.
  The most arboreal of all bears, the sun bear is an excellent climber and sunbathes or sleeps in trees 2 to 7 metres above the ground. It is mainly active during the day, though nocturnality might be more common in areas frequented by humans. Sun bears tend to remain solitary but sometimes occur in pairs. They do not seem to hibernate, possibly because food resources are available the whole year throughout the range.
context_section_description: Sun bears are found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia; the range is bound by northeastern India to the north and extends south to southeast through Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in mainland Asia to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to the south. Their presence in China was confirmed after years in 2017 when they were sighted in Yingjiang County of Yunnan Province (China). Sun bears are extinct in Singapore.
  These bears dwell primarily in two main types of forests throughout their range: deciduous and seasonally evergreen forests to the north of the Isthmus of Kra, and non-seasonal evergreen forests in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are typically found at low altitudes, such as below 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in western Thailand and peninsular Malaysia. However, this varies widely throughout the range; in India larger numbers have been recorded at an elevation of up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft) than in low-lying areas, probably due to habitat loss at ground level. They occur in montane areas in northeast India, but may not extend farther north into the unfavourable and colder Himalayan region; their distribution might be restricted to the northwest due to competition with sloth bears. The sun bear is sympatric with the Asian black bear throughout the remaining areas in the mainland range featuring a mix of seasonal forest types, with monthly rainfall below 100 mm (4 in) for a long spell of three to seven months. In mountainous areas, Asian black bears are more common than sun bears, probably due to scarcity of invertebrates to feed on. The major habitats in southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia are moist evergreen forests, with more or less non-varying climate and heavy rainfall throughout the year, and low-lying or montane dipterocarp forests. Mangroves may be inhabited, but usually only when they are close to preferred habitat types. 
  Sun bears tend to avoid heavily logged forests and areas close to human settlement. However they have been seen in farmlands, plantations and orchards, where they may be considered vermin. A survey in Lower Kinabatagan (Malaysia) published in 2017 showed that sun bears were feared but were not common in oil palm plantations; bearded pigs, elephants and macaques were far more damaging to crops. Sun bears have been reported preying on poultry and livestock.
  In the past sun bears ranged from Borneo and Sumatra in the north and Assam in the northwest to northeastern Vietnam in the northeast and at least Yunnan Province (China) in the east. Fossil remains suggest their occurrence farther north in the Pleistocene; sun bears may have occurred as far south as Java (Indonesia) in the middle to late Pleistocene. Today they have been eliminated from majority of their erstwhile range, especially in Thailand; populations are declining in most of the range countries. Sun bears disappeared from Singapore, possibly due to extensive deforestation, during the 1800s and 1900s. Sun bear populations appear to decrease in size northward from Sundaland, and numbers are especially low in the northern and western extremes of the range. This has possibly been the case since prehistoric times and is not a result of human interference. Population densities vary from 4.3 and 5.9 individuals per 100 km² (39 sq mi) in Khao Yai National Park (Thailand) to 26 individuals per 100 km² (39 sq mi) in the Harapan Rainforest in southern Sumatra.
caption: Sun bear in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (Malaysia)
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