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Asian black bear
The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It is distributed from southeastern Iran, Pakistan, India and the Himalayas to mainland Southeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, mainland China and the Russian Far East to the islands of Honshū and Shikoku in Japan. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and is threatened by deforestation and poaching for its body parts, which are used in traditional medicine.
Biologically and morphologically, the Asian black bear represents the beginning of the arboreal specializations attained by sloth bears and sun bears. It has karyotypes nearly identical to those of the five other ursine bears, and has 74 chromosomes. It is considered the least derived of the Old World bears. It is either a surviving, albeit modified, form of Ursus etruscus, specifically the early, small variety of the Middle Villafranchian or a larger form of Ursus minimus, an extinct species that arose 4 million years ago. With the exception of the age of the bones, it is often difficult to distinguish the remains of Ursus minimus with those of the modern Asian black bear.
The Asian black bear and the American black bear are thought to have genetically diverged 3 million years ago, though genetic evidence is inconclusive. Both the American and Asian black species are considered sister taxa and are more closely related to each other than to the other bear species. The earliest known Asian black bear specimens are known from the early Pliocene in Moldova. The earliest American black bear fossils found in Pennsylvania greatly resemble the Asian black bear. Investigations on the mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence indicate that the divergence of continental Asian and Japanese black bear populations might have occurred when bears crossed the land bridge between the Korean peninsula and Japan 500,000 years ago, which is consistent with paleontological evidence.
Until the Late Pleistocene, two further subspecies ranged across Europe and West Asia. These are U. t. mediterraneus from Western Europe and the Caucasus and U. t. permjak from Eastern Europe, particularly the Ural Mountains.
Asian black bears are reproductively compatible with several other bear species, and have on occasion produced hybrid offspring. According to Jack Hanna's Monkeys on the Interstate, a bear captured in Sanford, Florida, was thought to have been the offspring of an escaped female Asian black bear and a male American black bear, and Scherren's Some notes on hybrid bears published in 1907 mentioned a successful mating between an Asian black bear and a sloth bear. In 1975, within Venezuela's "Las Delicias" Zoo, a female Asian black bear shared her enclosure with a male spectacled bear, and produced several hybrid descendants. In 2005, a possible Asian black bear–sun bear hybrid cub was captured in the Mekong River watershed of eastern Cambodia. An Asian black bear/brown bear hybrid, taken from a bile farm, is housed at the Animals Asia Foundation's China Moon Bear Rescue as of 2010[update].
The Asian black bear has black fur, a light brown muzzle, and a distinct whitish or creamy patch on the chest, which is sometimes V-shaped. Its ears are bell shaped, proportionately longer than those of other bears, and stick out sideways from the head. Its tail is short, around 11 cm (4.3 in) long. Adults measure 70–100 cm (28–39 in) at the shoulder, and 120–190 cm (47–75 in) in length. Adult males weigh 60–200 kg (130–440 lb) with an average weight of about 135 kg (298 lb). Adult females weigh 40–125 kg (88–276 lb), and large ones up to 140 kg (310 lb).
The Asian black bear is similar in general build to the brown bear (Ursus arctos), but is lighter and smaller. The lips and nose are larger and more mobile than those of brown bears. The skull of the Asian black bear is relatively small but massive, particularly in the lower jaw. Adult males have skulls measuring 311.7 to 328 mm (12.27 to 12.91 in) in length and 199.5–228 mm (7.85–8.98 in) in width, while female skulls are 291.6–315 mm (11.48–12.40 in) long and 163–173 mm (6.4–6.8 in) wide. Compared to other bears of the genus Ursus, the projections of the skull are weakly developed; the sagittal crest is low and short, even in old specimens, and does not exceed more than 19–20% of the total length of the skull, unlike in the brown bear, which has a sagittal crest comprising up to 41% of the skull's length.
Although the Asian black bear is mostly herbivorous, its jaw structure is not as specialized for plant eating as that of the giant panda; Asian black bears have much narrower zygomatic arches, and the weight ratio of the two pterygoid muscles is also much smaller in Asian black bears. The lateral slips of the temporal muscles are thicker and stronger in Asian black bears.
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Asian black bear
The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It is distributed from southeastern Iran, Pakistan, India and the Himalayas to mainland Southeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, mainland China and the Russian Far East to the islands of Honshū and Shikoku in Japan. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and is threatened by deforestation and poaching for its body parts, which are used in traditional medicine.
Biologically and morphologically, the Asian black bear represents the beginning of the arboreal specializations attained by sloth bears and sun bears. It has karyotypes nearly identical to those of the five other ursine bears, and has 74 chromosomes. It is considered the least derived of the Old World bears. It is either a surviving, albeit modified, form of Ursus etruscus, specifically the early, small variety of the Middle Villafranchian or a larger form of Ursus minimus, an extinct species that arose 4 million years ago. With the exception of the age of the bones, it is often difficult to distinguish the remains of Ursus minimus with those of the modern Asian black bear.
The Asian black bear and the American black bear are thought to have genetically diverged 3 million years ago, though genetic evidence is inconclusive. Both the American and Asian black species are considered sister taxa and are more closely related to each other than to the other bear species. The earliest known Asian black bear specimens are known from the early Pliocene in Moldova. The earliest American black bear fossils found in Pennsylvania greatly resemble the Asian black bear. Investigations on the mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence indicate that the divergence of continental Asian and Japanese black bear populations might have occurred when bears crossed the land bridge between the Korean peninsula and Japan 500,000 years ago, which is consistent with paleontological evidence.
Until the Late Pleistocene, two further subspecies ranged across Europe and West Asia. These are U. t. mediterraneus from Western Europe and the Caucasus and U. t. permjak from Eastern Europe, particularly the Ural Mountains.
Asian black bears are reproductively compatible with several other bear species, and have on occasion produced hybrid offspring. According to Jack Hanna's Monkeys on the Interstate, a bear captured in Sanford, Florida, was thought to have been the offspring of an escaped female Asian black bear and a male American black bear, and Scherren's Some notes on hybrid bears published in 1907 mentioned a successful mating between an Asian black bear and a sloth bear. In 1975, within Venezuela's "Las Delicias" Zoo, a female Asian black bear shared her enclosure with a male spectacled bear, and produced several hybrid descendants. In 2005, a possible Asian black bear–sun bear hybrid cub was captured in the Mekong River watershed of eastern Cambodia. An Asian black bear/brown bear hybrid, taken from a bile farm, is housed at the Animals Asia Foundation's China Moon Bear Rescue as of 2010[update].
The Asian black bear has black fur, a light brown muzzle, and a distinct whitish or creamy patch on the chest, which is sometimes V-shaped. Its ears are bell shaped, proportionately longer than those of other bears, and stick out sideways from the head. Its tail is short, around 11 cm (4.3 in) long. Adults measure 70–100 cm (28–39 in) at the shoulder, and 120–190 cm (47–75 in) in length. Adult males weigh 60–200 kg (130–440 lb) with an average weight of about 135 kg (298 lb). Adult females weigh 40–125 kg (88–276 lb), and large ones up to 140 kg (310 lb).
The Asian black bear is similar in general build to the brown bear (Ursus arctos), but is lighter and smaller. The lips and nose are larger and more mobile than those of brown bears. The skull of the Asian black bear is relatively small but massive, particularly in the lower jaw. Adult males have skulls measuring 311.7 to 328 mm (12.27 to 12.91 in) in length and 199.5–228 mm (7.85–8.98 in) in width, while female skulls are 291.6–315 mm (11.48–12.40 in) long and 163–173 mm (6.4–6.8 in) wide. Compared to other bears of the genus Ursus, the projections of the skull are weakly developed; the sagittal crest is low and short, even in old specimens, and does not exceed more than 19–20% of the total length of the skull, unlike in the brown bear, which has a sagittal crest comprising up to 41% of the skull's length.
Although the Asian black bear is mostly herbivorous, its jaw structure is not as specialized for plant eating as that of the giant panda; Asian black bears have much narrower zygomatic arches, and the weight ratio of the two pterygoid muscles is also much smaller in Asian black bears. The lateral slips of the temporal muscles are thicker and stronger in Asian black bears.