Have you ever wondered if there are any characteristics of the honey bear? This kind of bear is also popular as the sun bear. Most of them are living around the tropical forest, similar to the animal in the Borneo rainforest in Southeast Asia.
There are so many characteristics of honey bears based on their appearance and their habit, similar to some animals found in the Oriental region. It can make a difference in other bear populations.
If you are wondering what kind of characteristics of the honey bear has, here we have some of them on the list below. Let’s check them out!
1. Appearance
By looking at the appearance, the characteristic of the honey bear can be recognized easily. They have black color all over the body with a U-pattern of golden brown color around their chest.
As the rarest bear in the world, honey bears are built with large paws, stronger claws with a curved pattern, small rounded ears, and a grey or orange short snout.
Their fur is silky and mostly grows shorter, which is suitable for living in the tropical region which is different from animals that live in the North Pole.
The appearance of honey bears can be recognized easily by their body size. They are the smallest bears which can grow up to 150 cm long and 80 kg of weight. Most of them have a typical short tail which only grows up to 7 cm.
2. Habitat
By looking at the habitat, and characteristics of the honey bears commonly live around the tropical region which is different from animals that live at the South Pole. They can be seen around the tropical forest and sometimes around agricultural lands.
Honey bears are solitary animals but sometimes seen that they are living in pairs similar to some animals found in the Neotropical region.
They can be seen around the primary forest and secondary forest as well. Most of them are not hibernate, which makes them different from other bears.
Honey bears habitats are spread in most of Borneo forest and Sumatra forest in Indonesia. Some of them are also seen around South China, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula.
3. Behaviors
Characteristics of the honey bear can be easily recognized by their behavior. Some of them are typically nocturnal animals that are pretty active during the night. Even so, depending on the region, some of them also found pretty active during the day.
Honey bears love to spend their time around the tree to find food. Most of them can climb up to 7 meters of trees. They are typically stronger animals that can break the branches and bring them down to make a nest.
Honey bears are rarely found to attack humans. Unless someone provoked them, they wouldn’t attack humans. They are typical of shy animals that love to cuddle around the cub with other honey bears.
4. Diet
Characteristics of the honey bear can be acknowledged easily by their diet. They love to eat honeycombs and honey the most. Even so, they also eat some smaller bugs, bees, ants, and other smaller animals.
Honey bears are classified as omnivores. That is why they also love to eat some fruits. They have long claws and sharp teeth, which can chew the fruit and rip the tree to find honey.
Honey bears have excellent noses, which help them to find food. Their extremely long tongue helps them to extract the honey.
5. Mating habit
One of the characteristics of the honey bear can be recognized by their mating habits. As the nocturnal animal, their mating habit is known limitlessly. Some of them are seen as monogamous and love to spend their mate hugging, mocking, fighting, and head bobbing.
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During breeding time, female honey bears can give birth to up to two baby honey bears. Their breed time is throughout the year, and their babies depend on the considerable number of females.
Baby honey bears, commonly called cubs, can independently live after reaching the age of two. Most honey bears have their maturity reproduction when reached the age of three or four.
6. Lifestyle
Honey bear is a popular animal that has a good lifestyle to help other animals. They are also categorized as an animal that helps the balance of nature in the forest. Their habit when finding the honey around the tree are significantly helping birds build their nest.
Honey bears love to dig in the soil to find invertebrate animals for food. Their digging soil habit brings the land to have a mix of soil in between the good and the lack of nutrient soil inside. It brings the balance of the soil significantly, which is good for the tree in the forest.
7. Population
Based on the IUCN data in 2007, the population of honey bears decreased by 30% every year. This decreased characteristic of the honey bears brings them vulnerable animals that should be protected.
The population of honey bears needs to be given extra protection to bring wellness to the forest. These kinds of animals have an important role to keep the balanced ecosystem, such as dispersing seeds, insect population control, and more.
8. Habitat loss
The characteristics of the honey bears that need to be concerned are their habitat loss. Deforestation, illegal logging, and human intervention bring them into dramatically decreased populations.
Illegal hunters for honey bears are often found in most Southeast Asia countries. They hunt them for medicine, delicacy, and stock.
All those characteristics of the honey bears need to be protected to keep them alive longer. Habitat loss of the honey bear needs to get good prevention under the law to prevent them from extinction.