Importance of knowing the endangerment of Sun Bears

[Guest guest]

 

 

http://amanda-christi.blogspot.com/2008/04/currently-sun-bear-can-be-found.html

Importance of knowing the endangerment of

Sun Bears

 

Currently, the sun bear can be found primarily in the lowland forests of Borneo, southern China, the Malay Pennisula, Myammar, Sumatra, and Thailand. Historically, the sun bears could be found in the forests of southeastern Asia, and India. There have been several unconfirmed sightings of sun bears in India over the years; however, the last verified sighting was in 1964, when a sun bear was found around the Brahmapretra River, and was captured and sent to the Trivendrum Zoo. Since none of the recent sightings of sun bears have been verified, the sun bear is still considered to be extinct in India.

Even though scientists know very little about the sun bear, they have been able to single out a few key reasons as to why the sun bears are endangered. One of the big reasons for the decline in the sun bear population is because of loss of habitat. A good majority of the land they used to inhabit is being cleared for coffee, rubber, and oil palm plantations.One of the other big reasons the sun bears are endangered is due to illegal hunting and trading of bear parts in the Asian marketplaces. The sun bear is protected in Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia, and this protection prohibits killing, trade in dead or live animals, and keeping the bears as pets. Despite being protected from hunting in Indonesia, the effectiveness of this protection is questionable. Most people who find sun bears on their property will still shoot the bears, fearing for their livestock. In actuality, sun bears have very little interest in killing and eating domestic animals. True, they are omnivorous (as are most other bear species).

In other parts of the world, including Malaysia, the sun bear is listed as a game species making it legal to hunt and kill this bear. In China, the sun bear is listed as a "first class conserved animal"; however, according to the IUCN, very little protection is offered to the sun bear outside of the nature preserves in China. In Thailand where the bear is reported as numerous, legislation is only just now being proposed to protect this species from hunters. (Endangered Species Report #35, by Holly L. Koppel)

Sun bears live in the forests of Asia, from India to China and down to Indonesia. These forests have declined by between 30% and 49% over the past 30 years, suggesting that the number of sun bears living within them must also have declined. This habitat decline meets the criteria needed by the IUCN to classify the bears as "vulnerable".Like the Asiatic black bear – another "vulnerable" species – the sun bear is also threatened by the Asian bear trade, which sees the animals trapped, caged and killed for their bile, which contains ursodeoxycholic acid, an anti-inflammatory.The chemical can be made synthetically, but in south-east Asia bear bile is a traditional medicinal remedy. Farmers and even restaurant owners will sometimes have as many as 20 bears in cages, which they milk for their bile. In China, where the practice originates, bear farms can hold several hundred bears.Bile is naturally produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. It is 'milked' directly from the gall bladder through a cut in the bear’s abdomen, and it is through this process that the bear can become infected and die. (by Special Reports, New Scientists)

The Malaysian Sun Bears remaing population is still unknown. The majority of the Malayan sun bear's forest habitat has been destroyed by logging and conversion to agriculture. In addition to leveling the forest, logging roads create convenient access for poachers. As natural food sources disappear, sun bears are driven by hunger to forage for food on farms and plantations, where they are shot or trapped by angry farmers. Traditional Asian medicine prescribes bear fat, gall, meat, paws, spinal cord, blood, and bones for complaints ranging from baldness to rheumatism. Bear entrees are popular in restaurants, and sun bear paws are favored in Taiwan for soup. The trade in bear gall in particular is so highly profitable that it has been likened to the heroin trade, as dried gall can sell for 18 times the price of gold. In addition, Malayan people often keep sun bears as pets. The mother bears are killed in order to obtain cubs young enough to tame.Thousands of other innocent species around the world are facing this death sentence we humans put upon them, it is time we start putting our environmental matters into our own hands. Each individual is reponsible to keep the natural habitat in its place. We are not alone on this planet, pay attention to those not only related to yourself, but outside your personal world as well, they too deserve a chance to live and not pay the painful price of your selfishness. how would you like it if, it was you who is to be slaughtered and put onto an exotic plate? how would you like it if it was you who only mind your own business leaving in your habitat and some stranger came and shoot you dead?Stop the exotic leather purchases, stop the fur fashion, stop the leisure wild pets in your home, stop these selfish thinking. Your thinking itself is a crime. "when the buying stops, the killing does too" Make a difference today or there will never be a tomorrow for you.http://www.care2.com/ - a website on news about animal being mistreated, animal justice, all the news around. http://www.care2.com/news/member/193510781/704596 -a more advance to the page on a sunbear being mistreated and death.