Bears

The asian black bears are threatened because of habitat loss and hunting for body parts. Although the bears are hunted for their paws and skin, another thing they have is way more important for traders, namely their bile.

Because of habitat loss and poaching the natural habitat of the asian bears decreases. Here you see the asian bear range.

General information

You can recognize the asian black bear by his black coat and a white to brown V-shape fur on his chest. There are two species that are known for their bile, which is the sun bear and the moon bear.

  • The sun bear. Sun bears live in Southeast Asia and their habitat is tropical rainforest. The estimation is that there are less than 1.000 sun bears left in the wild. They are about half the size of an American black bar, and furthermore they are muscular with small ears. Because of this small appearance they can easily climb trees, where they will spend the night. They also have a nicknime called honey bear, because of their long tongue, which they will use to get som honey from bee nests. Furthermore, they eat small animals (birds, lizards, insects), fruits and roots.
  • The asiatic black bear, also called moon bear. Less than 50.000 bears still live in the wild. The bigest part of the asiatic black bear can be found in Southeast Asia.  They have a fuzzier coat than the sun bear and also bigger ears. They have similar eating habits, namely fruit, insects and small animals.

  

Moon bear                                                             sun bear

Bear bile

Bear bile has been used a lot in the Traditional Chinese Medine. An avarage bear can produce 2 kilograms of powder bile a year, which is used in medicines to cure among other things gall stones, heart diseases, fever and liver problems. The demand for bear bile is mostly seen in countries like China, Vietnam and Japan, but also a lot of other Southeast Asian countries bear bile is being sold. The reason why the bear is chosen for its bile, is because it has the largest density of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in their bile, which is the active substance for the medicines.

However getting this bile from the bear is a painfull proces. On top of that bears are locked up in a bear farm under horrible circumstances, just to get this bile from them.

Bear farming

Bear frams are places where bears are being kept to extract bile from them. Most of the time a lot of bears are being kept in a tiny cage where they can only turn around and not even walk. Bears are starving and dehydrated, which can lead to diseases and of course a horrible wellbeing for the bears. To have a good representation of how a bear farm looks like, please click here to see a video.

Fun facts

  • The sun bear have short hairs to avoid overtheating, but its thick to provide protection.
  • The tongue of a sun bear can have a length of 25 centimeter.
  • The moon bear walks more on 2 legs than any other bear.