Asiatic Black Bear

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Asiatic black bear

The Asiatic black bear or moon bear (Ursus thibetanus ) ranges through southern and eastern Asia, from Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Himalayas to Indochina, including most of China, Manchuria, Siberia, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The usual habitat of this bear is angiosperm forests, mixed hardwood-conifer forests, and brushy areas. It occurs in mountainous areas up to the tree-line, which can be as high as 13,000 ft (4,000 m) in parts of their Himalayan range.

The Asiatic black bear has an adult body length of 4.3–6.5 ft (1.3–2.0 m), a tail of 2.5–3.5 ft (75–105 cm), a height at the shoulder of 2.6–3.3 ft (80–100 cm), and a body weight of 110–440 lb (50–200 kg). Male animals are considerably larger than females. Their weight is greatest in late summer and autumn, when the animals are fat in preparation for winter. Their fur is most commonly black, with white patches on the chin and a crescent- or Y-shaped patch on their chest. The base color of some individuals is brownish rather than black.

Female Asiatic black bears, or sows, usually give birth to two small cubs 12–14 oz (350–400 g) in a winter den, although the litter can range from one to three. The gestation period is six to eight months. After leaving their birth den, the cubs follow their mother closely for about 2.5 years, after which they are able to live independently. Asiatic black bears become sexually mature at an age of three to four years, and they can live for as long as 33 years. These bears are highly arboreal, commonly resting in trees, and feeding on fruits by bending branches towards themselves as they sit in a secure place. They may also sleep during the day in dens beneath large logs, in rock crevices, or in other protected places. During the winter Asiatic black bears typically hibernate for several months, although in some parts of their range they only sleep deeply during times of particularly severe weather.

Asiatic black bears are omnivorous, feeding on a wide range of plant and animal foods. They mostly feed on sedges, grasses, tubers, twig buds, conifer seeds, berries and other fleshy fruits, grains, and mast (i.e., acorns and other hard nuts). They also eat insects, especially colonial types such as ants. Because their foods vary greatly in abundance during the year, the bears have a highly seasonal diet. Asiatic black bears are also opportunistic carnivores, and will also scavenge dead animals that they find. In cases where there is inadequate natural habitat available for foraging purposes, these bears will sometimes kill penned livestock, and they will raid bee hives when available. In some parts of their range, Asiatic black bears maintain territories in productive, lowland forests. In other areas they feed at higher elevations during the summer, descending to lower habitats for the winter.

All the body parts of Asiatic black bears are highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine, most particularly the gall bladders. Bear-paw soup is considered to be a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. Most bears are killed for these purposes by shooting or by using leg-hold, dead-fall, or pit traps. Some animals are captured alive, kept in cramped cages, and fitted with devices that continuously drain secretions from their gall bladder, which are used to prepare traditional medicines and tonics.

Populations of Asiatic black bears are declining rapidly over most of their range, earning them a listing of Vulnerable by the IUCN. These damages are being caused by overhunting of the animals for their valuable body parts (much of this involves illegal hunting , or poaching ), disturbance of their forest habitats by timber harvesting, and permanent losses of their habitat through its conversion into agricultural land-use. These stresses and ecological changes have caused Asiatic black bears to become endangered over much of their range.

[Bill Freedman Ph.D. ]