Sloth Bear
Melursus ursinus
Clasification
Kingdom Animalia - They have an animal cell which has no cell wall.
Next they have cells organized in tissue which allows them to move in some special way.
Phylum Chordata - A Sloth Bear is in the Phylum Chordata because is has bilateral symmetry, Ventral Heart, with dorsal and ventral blood vessels and closed blood system which means that it is related to the belly, and lastly a segmented body, including segmented muscles which means that they are divided.
Subphylum Vertebrata - They have a ventral heart with 2-4 chambers. Also it has 2 kidneys which paired with ducts to drain waste to exterior. Lastly a Sloth Bear a complete digestive system with large digestive glands , liver, and a pancreas.
Class Mammalia - A Sloth Bear is in the Class Mammalia because it has hair, contains a vast diversity of forms, and females can produce milk to the offspring.
Order Carnivore - A Sloth bear is in the order Carnivor because it eats flesh, hunts, and has diverse food habits which means a different kind of habit.
Family Ursidae - A sloth bear is part of the Family Ursidae because they are large mammales, they have 8 spieces in 5 genra (Ursus, Tremarctos, Melursus, Helarctos, and Ailuropoda), and lastly even though Ursidae is not diverse, spieces in this family are widespread and culturally significant to human populations throughout their range.
Genus Melursus - Genus Melursus.
Species Ursinus - Species Ursinus.
Sloth Bear in its habitat
Sloth Bears natural range
Sloth Bear Climblimg
Physical Adaptations
A Sloth Bear can weight up to a massive 55 to 140 kg (121.15 to 308.37 lb) and a Sloth Bear can get to 1.5 to 1.9 m long or 4.92 to 6.23 ft). and helps it get away faster because it is not weighted down. A Sloth Bear has a shaggy black coat, especially over the shoulders, They have a light "U" or "Y" shaped patch on their chest, These markings colors vary from white to yellow to chestnut brown, Lastly Brown and grey hairs found on the coat give the appearance of a cinnamon color on some Sloth Bears and this helps it be camouflaged.A Sloth Bear has a very developed claws to help it climb, and A long snout for getting/eating ants.
Behavioral Adaptations
A Sloth Bear sleeps in caves especially by river banks during the day, they do not hibernate , but they do have a period of inactivity during the rainy season, lastly they are nocturnal. That is what helps it get away from predators. A Sloth Bear lives mainly in Tropical areas, They can be found in forested and grasslands, And they are more frequently found lower elevations and seem to prefer drier forests and areas with rocky outcrops. Which helps it get their nutrients. A Sloth Bear are Omnivorous so even though they typically include large proportion of insect foods. Their diet includes leaves, honey, flowers, and fruits, fruits are more common and on occasion mat take up 50% of these bears' diet. Which helps it keep on a healthy diet.
Other Facts
A Sloths Bears name in Hindi is Bhalu. Its life span is 25 - 40 years old. Starts to Breed at age 3 - 4 years old and the breeding season is May - July.
Refrences
Bies, L. 2002. "Melursus ursinus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed March 11, 2015 at http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Melursus_ursinus/
Burton, M., & Burton, R. (2002). Sloth bear. In International wildlife encyclopedia v.1 (AAR-BAR) (3rd ed., Vol. 17, pp. 2403-2405). New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish.
Red list. (n.d.). Red list. Retrieved March, 2014, from Red List: http://www.iucnredlist.org/