Did you know that the world’s deadliest bear lives in the forests of India? The BBC’s Sophie Hardach tells us that the Indian sloth bear is such a deadly animal that even the Royal Bengal Tiger is scared of it. Ms Hardach writes:
“Sloth bears (named due to their long claws and teeth, supposedly resembling a sloth) which live in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, are widely considered among the most aggressive animals on the Indian subcontinent. They are known to charge explosively at anyone they consider a threat – not just tigers, but also, humans. One study counting large carnivore attacks on humans around the world between 1950 and 2019 found that sloth bear attacks outnumbered all other species, including tigers, lions, wolves and any other bears. There had been 1,337 sloth bear attacks on humans during that period, compared to 1,047 by tigers, 414 by wolves, and only 23 by polar bears, for example….”
If you want to see the sloth bear’s ferocity live, click on the links given in Ms Hardach’s article and you will able to see a video of an extended punch-up between a tiger and a sloth bear.
Ms Hardach says that the sloth bear’s aggression is the result of evolutionary forces: “…sloth bears may in fact have evolved their explosive strategy to survive among carnivores such as tigers, according to a 2024 study. “Explosively charging and attacking a potential threat has served sloth bears well for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years,” according to the study’s authors. Their analysis of 43 encounters between sloth bears and tigers suggests that the scare tactics work: the clashes mostly ended with both sides backing off and the tiger running away largely unharmed.
In the fight near the safari lodge, the female sloth bear and the male tiger also turned out to be quite evenly matched opponents, according to the naturalist who observed them.
“Tigers are very powerful, but their stamina might not last. And sloth bears are extremely hairy, so the tiger did not get proper grip on the throat of the sloth bear,” says Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist and manager of Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge in Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra state in India, who filmed the encounter.”
Unfortunately for Indians who live close to forested areas, tigers are not the only species facing off against the sloth bear. Ms Hardach writes: “For humans, however, the outcome of such a clash can be far worse. Firstly, unlike tigers, humans are not fast enough to outrun sloth bears. Also, the attacks themselves can be especially damaging to humans as the bears mostly attack the head, and their sharp, long claws can rip off people’s faces and gouge out their eyes.
“There are a lot of issues around human and sloth bear conflicts, and most of those conflicts are about sloth bears attacking humans,” says Nishith Dharaiya, director of the Centre for Wildlife Research at BKNM University in Junagadh, India, and an expert in human-sloth bear conflict. People may retaliate by killing sloth bears, Dharaiya says.
Encounters between sloth bears and humans are increasing, intensified by habitat loss and degradation.”
Interestingly though the sloth bear feeds on ants, termites, fruits and honey. It does not prey on mammals. So why does it attack tigers & humans? The BBC article says: “One of Dharaiya’s key arguments is that sloth bears are actually not necessarily inherently aggressive or intending to kill. Rather, he describes their deadliness to humans as a somewhat unintended consequence of a defence strategy that’s mainly meant to scare the enemy off, for example, when a female bear carrying cubs feels threatened.
“Whether it’s a tiger, lion, leopard, human, the sloth bear initially tries to show itself as bigger than the other animal,” he explains. “It stands on its hind legs, and then attacks with its forelegs,” equipped with long claws, which help them dig for ants as part of their usual feeding habit.”
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