page_title: Sloth bear
section_title: Cultural references
hierarchical_section_title: Sloth bear / Cultural references
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Ursine Bradypus or Ursiform Sloth, now called Sloth bear by F.P Nodder in book by G. Shaw.
context_page_description: The sloth bear is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss and degradation.
  It has also been called "labiated bear" because of its long lower lip and palate used for sucking up insects. It has a long, shaggy fur, a mane around the face, and long, sickle-shaped claws. It is lankier than brown and Asian black bears.
  It shares features of insectivorous mammals and evolved during the Pleistocene from the ancestral brown bear through convergent evolution.
  Sloth bears breed during spring and early summer and give birth near the beginning of winter. When their territories are encroached upon by humans, they sometimes attack them. Historically, humans have drastically reduced these bears' habitat and diminished their population by hunting them for food and products such as their bacula and claws. Sloth bears have been tamed and used as performing animals and as pets.
context_section_description: Charles Catton included the bear in his 1788 book Animals Drawn from Nature and Engraved in Aqua-tinta, describing it as an "animal of the bear-kind" and saying it was properly called the "Petre Bear".
  In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Baloo "the sleepy old brown bear" teaches the Law of the Jungle to the wolf cubs of the Seeonee wolf pack, as well as to his most challenging pupil, the "man-cub" Mowgli. Robert Armitage Sterndale, from whom Kipling derived most of his knowledge of Indian fauna, used the Hindustani word bhalu for several bear species, though Daniel Karlin, who edited the Penguin Classics reissue of The Jungle Book in 1989, stated, with the exception of colour, Kipling's descriptions of Baloo are consistent with the sloth bear, as brown bears and Asian black bears do not occur in the Seoni area where the novel takes place. Also, the name "sloth" can be used in the context of sleepiness. Karlin states, however, that Baloo's diet of ".. only roots and nuts and honey" is a trait more common to the Asian black bear than to the sloth bear.
  Local names:
  Gujarati: રીંછ rīn̄ch; also rinchh
  Hindi: भालु, bhālu; also rinch
  Odia: ଭାଲୁ, bhālu
  Bengali: শ্লথ ভালুক, ślath bhaluk; kālō bhāluk; also bhaluk
  Sanskrit: ऋक्ष, ṛkṣa; also rikspa
  Kannada: ಕರಡಿ, karaḍi; kaddi
  Tamil: கரடி, karaṭi; kaddi
  Malayalam: തേൻകരടി, tēnkaraṭi; also pani karudi
  Telugu: ఎలుగుబంటి, elugubaṇṭi; also elugu
  Marathi: अस्वल, asval; also aswal
  Gond: yerid, yedjal and asol
  Kol: bana
  Oraon: bir mendi
  Sinhala: වලසා, valasā; also usa
  Nepali: भालु, bhālu
caption: Sloth bear illustrated by Frederick Polydore Nodder, 1789
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