Malayan sun bear  (Helarctos malayanus)

Range

The range of the Malayan sun bear is not well documented, either historically or presently. However, the sun bear has been encountered throughout Southeast Asia from the eastern edge of India and northern Burma, to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand and south to Peninsular Malaysia and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The range of the sun bear has been greatly reduced through large scale habitat destruction and poaching and is now thought to be extinct in Tibet, Bangladesh and possibly Yunnan, southern China (1) (3) (6).

View a distribution map for this species at UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Habitat

The Malayan sun bear inhabits both primary and logged, dense Southeast Asian tropical forests, including tropical evergreen rainforest, montane forest and swamp habitat. It occurs up to 2,000 metres above sea level (4).

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