Marshall Cultural Atlas

This collection of student work is from Frank Keim's classes. He has wanted to share these works for others to use as an example of Culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These documents have been OCR-scanned. These are available for educational use only.

 

Sloth Bears

 

Toward the end of the eighteenth century the first pelts of the Sloth bear arrived in Europe. The name "bear Sloth" was quickly reversed to "Sloth bear "

The typical Sloth bear has a long, shaggy, unkempt, blackcoat, and a prominent white or yellow chevron or y marking on its chest. The hair is longer and shaggier than other bears, particularly on the back of the neck and between the shoulders. The belly and underleg hair is sparse, possibly to help keep the animal cool on hot days.

The bear has no front teeth, and the bony palate is hollowed out.The feet have white, blunt, curved claws up to three inches (7.6 cm)long. Sloth bears grow about six feet (1.8m) long, and stand three feet (91 cm) high at the shoulder. They have a 6-7 inch long tail Big males can weigh up to 300 pounds. Females are generally smaller.

Somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 Sloth bears are estimated to still exist in the world. They are found in the forested areas on the island of Sri Lanka and the Indian subcontinent, northward to the base of the Himalayas, and eastward to Assan. They are also known to occur in Nepal's Chitwan National Park. They were also common in India two decades ago, but today Sloth bears appear to be rapidly disappearing over most of their range.

Sloth bears are mainly nocturnal, but can be active at any hour during the day. Their usual gait is a slow, shambling walk, but when frightened, they can break into a gallop, moving faster than a running person. They do not climb trees to escape danger, they simply play dead.

The male bears mark trees by scaping the trunks with their forepaws and then rubbing the trunk with their flanks. In the wild, Sloth bears retreat to caves during the long rainy periods. Sloth bears are good climbers and scale trees to shake down fruit or to raid a bee's nest. Honey is an especially favored food. Although the bears may cry in pain when stung by angry bees, they will persist until all the honeycomb has been eaten. Their other foods include ants, berries, and the occasional scavenged tiger kill.

In India, the mating season runs from April through June. Sloth bear courtship is a very noisy affair and includes much hugging and mock fighting. Most births occur in December or early January.

Usually two, sometimes three, small cubs are born in a cave or shelter dug under a boulder. They are born blind and remain so for about three weeks. When the cubs are about four or five weeks old the den is abandoned. Sloth bear mothers regularly carry their young to and from the feeding grounds on their backs. One cub might always ride on the mother's shoulders, the other clinging to her rump. The mother Sloth bear may carry her young until they are nearly a third her size. Adult male bears are very gentle toward cubs and have even been seen traveling in family groups. Villagers in India believe the father helps to raise his offspring.

Sloth bears are a unique bear and attempts are being made to save them from extinction.

By: Tanya Peter

Grizzly	Jackie George
Brownies	Matthew Shorty
American Black Bear	Robert Pitka
The Polar Bear	Sophie Ann Moore
Asian Brown Bear	Greg Evan
The Asian Black Bear	Mary Jane Shorty
Spectacled Bear	Jonathan Boots
Sloth Bears	Tanya Peter
Giant Pandas	Theresa George
The Sun Bear	Charlotte Alstrom
Koala	Yvonne Evan

 

 

BEARS Information Student Stories Non-Fiction Student Stories Fiction

 

 

Christmastime Tales Stories real and imaginary about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year Winter, 1996	Christmastime Tales II Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year Winter, 1998	Christmastime Tales III Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year Winter, 2000
Summer Time Tails 1992	Summertime Tails II 1993	Summertime Tails III
Summertime Tails IV Fall, 1995	Summertime Tails V Fall, 1996	Summertime Tails VI Fall, 1997
Summertime Tails VII Fall, 1999	Signs of the Times November 1996	Creative Stories From Creative Imaginations
Mustang Mind Manglers - Stories of the Far Out, the Frightening and the Fantastic 1993	Yupik Gourmet - A Book of Recipes
M&M Monthly
Happy Moose Hunting! September Edition 1997	Happy Easter! March/April 1998	Merry Christmas December Edition 1997
Happy Valentine’s Day! February Edition 1998	Happy Easter! March/April Edition 2000	Happy Thanksgiving Nov. Edition, 1997
Happy Halloween October 1997 Edition	Edible and Useful Plants of Scammon Bay	Edible Plants of Hooper Bay 1981
The Flowers of Scammon Bay Alaska	Poems of Hooper Bay	Scammon Bay (Upward Bound Students)
Family Trees and the Buzzy Lord	It takes a Village - A guide for parents May 1997	People in Our Community
Buildings and Personalities of Marshall	Marshall Village PROFILE	Qigeckalleq Pellullermeng ‘A Glimpse of the Past’
Raven’s Stories Spring 1995	Bird Stories from Scammon Bay	The Sea Around Us
Ellamyua - The Great Weather - Stories about the Weather Spring 1996	Moose Fire - Stories and Poems about Moose November, 1998	Bears Bees and Bald Eagles Winter 1992-1993
Fish Fire and Water - Stories about fish, global warming and the future November, 1997	Wolf Fire - Stories and Poems about Wolves	Bear Fire - Stories and Poems about Bears Spring, 1992

 

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, educational institution, and provider is a part of the University of Alaska system. Learn more about UA's notice of nondiscrimination.