Sun bear
Credit: © Molly Marshall, Shutterstock

Bears have been in the news a lot this summer. From hopping into backyard pools to cool off in California to running across football practice fields in Tennessee, bears are everywhere! Recently, one sun bear has been called into question for looking like a human in a bear costume! Angela, a Malayan sun bear at the Hangzhou Zoo in northwestern China, became a star after a zoo visitor posted a video online stating Angela looks like a human in a bear costume when standing up. Well, that is just what sun bears look like.

A sun bear is the smallest kind of bear. It measures about 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) long and weighs from 60 to 150 pounds (30 to 70 kilograms). The sun bear’s coat is short. It is black with a lighter-colored muzzle and an O- or U-shaped blaze (light patch) on the chest that is cream, orange, or golden in color. The blaze pattern is unique to each individual bear, somewhat like a human fingerprint. Sun bears have small ears, massive canine teeth, and an extremely long tongue. The bear’s tongue can reach up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in length.

Sun bears are one of Asia’s most endangered animals. Experts estimate there are between 1,000 and 2,500 sun bears in the wild. They can be found from northeastern India to southeastern China, south to Sumatra and Borneo. They live in forests, especially lowland areas of deep forest. Sun bears can also be found at higher elevations and in agricultural areas. The habitat of the sun bear is disappearing quickly, with massive deforestation across much of its range.

Sun bears have long, sharp claws. A piece of bone inside each claw grows for the bear’s entire life. The longer the claw, the older the bear. The sun bear is an excellent climber and uses these special claws to tap on tree trunks and logs, searching for insects inside. The sun bear also uses its claws to break into bees nests to feed on honey and on bee larvae (young). Other food sources include termites, ants, beetle larvae, small vertebrates (animals with a backbone), and a wide variety of fruits. In the heat of the tropical sun, the sun bear can be found hugging the branches of tall trees while sleeping. This behavior may help the bear remain cool.

Sun bears spend much of their lives alone, except when with young. Unlike many other bears, they do not enter into a winter sleep. A female sun bear gives birth once a year, usually to one tiny, hairless cub. Cubs stay with their mother until they are fully grown, at about 2 years of age. Sun bears are sometimes eaten by giant reticulated pythons and may be vulnerable to predation by such large carnivores as tigers, leopards, and wild dogs. Sun bears can live to be 25 years old.

A sun bear climbs toward an apple at the Henry Doorly Zoo, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Credit: AP Photo

Experts on sun bears hope the interest in the furry creature will help conservation efforts. Zoos across the world are welcoming the increase in visitors to sun bear exhibits. Does it look like a human in a bear costume, or just a misunderstood bear?

July 3, 2014

Recent findings are sure to disappoint people who believe that the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, stalks the Himalaya and that Bigfoot prowls the Pacific Northwest in the United States. In a study published last week, British scientists who examined samples of “Yeti hair” sent in by museums and cryptozoologists (people who study and search for legendary creatures) reported finding no Yeti yet. The study appeared online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The Yeti is a creature said to live on Mount Everest and other mountain ranges of Asia. According to legend, the Yeti is a hairy beast with a large, apelike body and a face that resembles that of a human being. (World Book illustration by Ted Lewis).

Many people are fascinated by the idea that a large primate like the Yeti—or its American cousin, Bigfoot, or Russian relative, Almasty—could survive in remote wilderness areas unexplored by modern science. Cryptozoologists have investigated the Yeti for decades. Sensational reports of Yeti sightings have been exposed as hoaxes and fakes in the past, which has led many skeptics to dismiss the creature as pure fantasy.

The study on Yeti hair was led by Bryan Sykes, a geneticist at Oxford University. In 2012, Sykes requested samples of hair from Yeti enthusiasts,  saying, “I’m challenging and inviting the cryptozoologists to come up with the evidence instead of complaining that science is rejecting what they have to say.” Scientists on the study ended up analyzing the DNA of more than 30 of the 57 “Yeti hair” samples submitted. The remaining samples were eliminating after the scientists found that they were not hair but such substances as fiberglass. The researchers discovered that most of the 30 analyzed hair samples came from such common animals as cows, horses, raccoons, deer, and coyotes. None of the samples came from a new primate species.

Two of the samples, however, were less straightforward: one was found in Ladakh—a region in Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India; and the other came from Bhutan to the east. The tests revealed that the hair was from a mammal, but it did not match samples from known primates. Surprisingly, the DNA from the two samples matched up almost exactly with DNA from the 40,000-year-old jawbone of a Norwegian polar bear. The researchers do not believe that the “Himalayan Yeti” actually represents an isolated population of polar bears. Instead, they theorize that the region is home to a hybrid bear species unknown to science that developed from matings between polar bears and brown bears somewhere in northern Asia during the last Ice Age, when the ranges of those bears overlapped.

Sykes admits that the study does not disprove the existence of the Yeti or other large primates unknown to scientists; it only means that the samples submitted for analysis did not come from such creatures. Enthusiasts need to keep looking for evidence that stands up to scientific scrutiny.

Additional World Book articles:

• Folklore
• Hillary, Sir Edmund Percival
• Journey to the Top of the World by Sir Edmund P. Hillary (a special report)