
This funny looking fellow is the Sloth Bear. He's exclusively native to the Indian subcontinent, and is myrmecophagous - which means he eats ants and termites (and sometimes a bit of fruit or honey as a treat). He's also one of the smallest bears, being about 2/3rds the size of a black bear or 2/5ths the size of a grizzly (think like, large pig or small calf)

So you're probably thinking he's a relatively harmless creature. He's what Baloo in The Jungle Book is! Look how cute they are, mummy sloth bears give their cubs piggy-back rides.


Sloth bears are widely considered to be the single most dangerous animal in the Indian subcontinent. There are more sloth bear attacks every year than attacks from every other bear species combined. Upon seeing a human they will often immediately charge and attack,
ripping people's faces off (warning: very graphic images). Attempting to run away from a sloth bear attack
actually results in increased fatality outcomes. To be clear: they do not eat meat. There is no recorded incident, ever, of a sloth bear eating someone they've killed. This also isn't specifically a "getting between momma bear and her cubs" situation, solitary sloth bears with no offspring will charge at humans and claw their faces off (they specifically target faces). Seeing humans fills them with a rage and bloodlust, and the more often they see humans,
the more aggressive they become. In many cases the bear charges from quite some distance away, with bear attack survivors observing they didn't know a bear was around until it was trying to kill them.
Now it's theorised this is an evolutionary defence mechanism against tiger attacks, but a counter theory is because they only live in India and therefore only ever meet Indians, this is why a cutesy fuzzy little bear who only eats ants and fruit decides it must rip the face off of any person it encounters.