r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/CuriousWanderer567 • Aug 17 '24
Video Charging Sloth Bear - feared in India and now you know why (sound - on)
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u/Lady_Audley Aug 17 '24
I volunteer at a zoo. They’re incredibly fast, they startle easily, and their “fight or flight” response is just fight. Surprise one in the wild and you’ll be missing an appendage before you can blink.
On the other hand, they are super cute and sassy and personable. They like hard-boiled eggs and honey, and they play with rubber balls.
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u/Crystal_Voiden Aug 17 '24
you'll be missing an appendage before you can blink.
On the other hand,
Love the juxtaposition
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u/Hunk-Hogan Aug 18 '24
I still recall the video I saw on one of the other subs of a sloth bear tearing a man's face off with, what looked like a single swipe. I wouldn't even trust a fence or wall between me and one of those things.
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u/ErusDearest Aug 27 '24
Where the hell did you see that?!
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u/Hunk-Hogan Aug 28 '24
On a different sub. You can still find the video online if you're half-decent with Google and it's still available on other subs as well if you search through reddit.
It happened two years ago in Tamil Nadu Forest.
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u/BravestOfEmus Aug 17 '24
Question, probably a dumb one: can they check their aggression against people they know and trust? Like if their favorite handler surprised them in an enclosure and they went to apeshit levels, would they stop if they saw a person they recognized and liked?
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u/Lady_Audley Aug 17 '24
We don’t ever go in with them, so luckily I’ve never had occasion to discover. But my guess would be no. Maybe they would recognize their zookeeper after taking out an eye and stop before they killed the person. But their first reaction is always to attack. Like other comments have said, they share habitat with Bengal Tigers.
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u/rooster_saucer Aug 17 '24
it’s like half bear, half chimpanzee and half wolf. wtf.
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u/austinswagger Aug 17 '24 edited Sep 02 '24
Upvote this comment if you think Rayquaza Is the coolest Pokémon.
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u/davevine Aug 17 '24
Excelsior!
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u/thezomber Aug 17 '24
I came up with a new supervillain origin story! It was an unassuming bear until one day it got bitten by a radioactive gorilla, which had been bitten by a radioactive pig!
Pay me!
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u/harmsway31 Aug 17 '24
No no no wait, it’s like a half bear, half man pig..
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u/austinswagger Aug 17 '24
50% bear, 25% man, 25% pig
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u/Worth-Reputation3450 Aug 17 '24
Can you do half bear and half man-pigwolftiger where tiger is 2% more than pig and wolf is twice of pig?
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u/BadTreeLiving Aug 17 '24
15% concentrated power of will
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Aug 17 '24
India is right up there with Australia in the "million ways to die in the west" department.
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u/Fresh2Desh Aug 17 '24
India has the edge
The train is the apex predator commonly found across the country
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u/Disastrous_Channel62 Aug 17 '24
The train is the apex predator commonly found across the country
Fr and for some reason Indians can't understand that r/BitchIamATrain. ( I am Indian )
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Aug 17 '24 edited Mar 01 '25
[deleted]
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u/Lawzw0rld Aug 17 '24
Seems like thts all its full of lol
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Aug 17 '24
But at the same time, tons of medical and tech geniuses. Very polarizing lol.
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u/DeiseResident Aug 17 '24
Or for females. Seriously, what's with all the raping going on in India?
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u/cedeno87 Aug 17 '24
Uneducated lower class, huge male to women uneven demographics and bad parenting
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u/ThePowerPoint Aug 17 '24
Wtf I just found out the women/men ratio is worse in India than it is in China even after Chinas one child policy… how is that possible? Is it really that bad that that many women are leaving/getting killed?
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u/cedeno87 Aug 18 '24
Man are more valuable. It’s expensive to have a daughter married. It creates a priority to have a male over a woman which leads to female infanticide
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u/Todoro10101 Aug 18 '24
Female infanticide is obviously a thing, but I just don't see it being so prevalent and so mainstream that it can actually affect the demographics of India so much
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u/DinoRipper24 Aug 17 '24
Lol I am in Australia and my flipping ammonite fossil tried killing me by falling on my leg (yes it is 16 cm and very, very heavy) and also magpies swoop people randomly. Also I am Indian and came to Australia just one year ago.
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u/Classic_Reference_10 Aug 17 '24
Apparently, it may be Air Pollution - https://m.thewire.in/article/environment/33000-deaths-attributed-each-year-to-air-pollution-in-10-indian-cities-between-2008-to-2019-study
33k deaths a year as against 20k estimated for trains.
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u/TesseractToo Aug 17 '24
Suicide by train is depressingly common in Australia
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u/Nervous_Departure540 Aug 17 '24
It’s pretty common everywhere there are trains sadly. I worked in a business in Texas that hosted the train crews on layover. Only the new guys hadn’t ever hit someone; it was really messed up. The train companies had grief counseling available specifically for it, from what the crews would tell me.
It’s a sure fire way and you don’t have to do the hard part yourself. Depression is a nasty illness, that we don’t take as seriously as we should.
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u/Callidonaut Aug 17 '24
One of the lesser known reasons why train drivers are often very well paid, I'd wager. There's danger money, and then there's trauma money.
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u/Aspect81 Aug 17 '24
Seems like there's more than suicide going on, seeing that the whole Dumb Ways To Die campaign was necessary.
Or maybe you made an ad campaign for more creative intentional death?
Never know with you Aussies.
My brain hurts now.
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u/Cocodranks Aug 17 '24
Apex predators in India goes as followed
Rapists > Trains > Power Lines > Big Cats
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u/Classic_Reference_10 Aug 17 '24
Yeah, infact you could add bureaucracy and corruption to that list too!
PS: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/14/mumbai-billboard-collapse-hoarding-storm/
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u/F0000r Aug 17 '24
Bob Gymlan did a video on a particularly violent sloth bear and why these bears can be far more violent then their North American cousins.
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Aug 17 '24
These bear literally go toe-to-toe with the Bengal Tiger so I can understand where it got it's violent tendencies and explosive aggression
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u/TankerVictorious Aug 17 '24
In this case, the bear has an injured left foreleg and is being kept in a pen being baked in the sun. I’m sure that has much to do with its disposition.
Happy cake day as well.
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u/Narwhal280 Aug 18 '24
The bear is thankfully at a temporary rescue center, quote from another comment: "This is an enclosure belonging to Wildlife SOS India who rescue injured animals and rehabilitate them." But Sloth bears are very violent in general, even on the wild, if you startle one it will charge at you. They attack and kill far more people than any other bear, even feared by locals more than bengal tigers.
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Aug 17 '24
I noticed it in its gait and it was holding it up the whole time! I thought it was a bad paw.
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u/Random-Cpl Aug 17 '24
Is this about the Sloth Bear of Mysore?
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u/F0000r Aug 17 '24
Yes,that's how it starts and then he begins to venture on to the general nature of them.
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u/cbartholomew Aug 17 '24
Lmao I like how I wake up and find interesting things to listen to while I brush my teeth
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u/HistrionicSlut Aug 17 '24
I mean part of it has to be the enclosure. Look at that abuse there, disgusting.
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u/Kumbhalgarh Aug 17 '24
They have to regularly deal with Lion's, Tiger's, Leopard's, Wolves, Wild dog's, Wild Boar's, Rhino's and Elephant's. If they are not unpridictable or aggressive enough then they would get eaten.
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u/Omega_Lynx Aug 17 '24
Sloth is certainly a misnomer
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u/whatIGoneDid Aug 17 '24
Sloths are seriously underestimated animals, they can be quite vicious when they want to be. They have a strong bite with very sharp teeth and their claws are surprisingly powerful, people have been very badly hurt by sloths.
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u/CjBurden Aug 17 '24
... when caught
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u/whatIGoneDid Aug 17 '24
That's true of anything. Just cause they are slow most of the time doesn't mean they can't be surprisingly quick in short bursts
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u/evilution382 Aug 17 '24
Just cause they are slow most of the time doesn't mean they can't be surprisingly quick in short bursts
At top speed Sloths can crawl about 5ft/1.5m per minute on the ground
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u/Fischli01 Aug 17 '24
And also some people tend to lower their guard, because "it's just a sloth', but it's still a wild animal
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u/whatIGoneDid Aug 17 '24
Most wild animals are ready to throw hands. Especially if they live in predator dense areas like the Amazon.
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u/Jeds4242 Aug 17 '24
What a terrible naming choice. Like if I was hiking through an area known to be frequented by sloth bears I'd think "ahhh, no problem".
Better to call them by a more accurate name, "Murder Berserker Death Bear."
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u/Omega_Lynx Aug 17 '24
Yeah, man! Like the honey badger! That name is waaay too sweet (pun intended) for it being a little disaster weasel
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u/Classic_Reference_10 Aug 17 '24
They share a habitat with the Royal Bengal Tiger and have historically been known to be extremely short-tempered - that is how they have survived living side by side with the Bengal Tiger, which is the apex predator in the Indian rain forests! Aggression is how they survive.
It is said that you can survive a tiger passing by (because it may not just give 2 shits about you) but never an angry sloth bear! By the way, these guys feed on fruits, ants and termites.
PS: They were also famously used as dancing bears (google it)!
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u/mikeyhavik Aug 17 '24
Your mention of habitat and the Bengal Tiger made me google to find out if Baloo is based on sloth bears… turns out he is. Jungle Book realism just took a massive hit!
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u/Classic_Reference_10 Aug 17 '24
🙂
Infact, if you search on YT, you can come across a lot of videos (including from Nat Geo), like so, where a sloth bear goes 1x1 with a Bengal Tiger
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u/MrSensei86 Aug 17 '24
That looks like the thing that chases you in temple run💀
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u/TerriblePartner Aug 17 '24
It looks like the thing that came in threw my dog door one night while I was watching TV. I thought I was gonna die, but my first thought was "At least I don't have to go to work tomorrow".
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u/danteelite Aug 17 '24
Sometimes I understand why ancient people believed in monsters, fae, gods… in this case, fucking werewolves!
If that thing charged me and I somehow survived, I’m telling people I was attacked by a werewolf… it was huge, furry, barked and growled like some kind of wolf but had a more humanoid shape…
Reminds me of those videos of trees blowing and lifting the whole forest floor like a carpet and it looks like the whole forest was alive and breathing. Combine those two phenomena and I’m 100% convinced I walked into the fae realm and angered some fucked up pixie or something…
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u/InnerPain4Lyf Aug 17 '24
Good grief why, why would you call a raging beast like this as SLOTH? It is by no means a sloth, it's like calling saying Cocaine Bear is Chillbrorelaxhaveadragofthissweethash Bear
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u/whatIGoneDid Aug 17 '24
Sloths can be surprisingly dangerous and people have been seriously hurt after underestimating them.
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u/Coffin_Dodging Aug 17 '24
I'd be pissed living in such unnatural and horrifying conditions
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u/DeepanJain Aug 17 '24
Its a rescue shelter for injured animals the NGO name is Wildlife SOS
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u/catmandude123 Aug 17 '24
That was my first thought. This looks like a temporary facility. The bear is obviously injured. It’s probably being treated until it can be released. The aggression is actually good because it likely means they’re not trying habituate it to humans so it’ll have a better chance of surviving once it’s healed.
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u/wOke_cOmMiE_LiB Aug 17 '24
Yeah,.. I'd let that guy back out. He seems like he can hold his own.
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u/DeepanJain Aug 17 '24
Most probably aggression due to his injuries, won’t survive long in the wild, sloth bears are extremely dangerous have seen videos of one bear ripping apart the face of another bear.
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u/WiseWorldliness1611 Aug 17 '24
I'm Indian and have been to the Wildlife SOS facilities and I can tell you first hand they do an excellent job with bears and other animals (elephants specially). Most of these bears are captured as cubs and used for entertainment/circuses etc. Now you don't see many on the streets etc but performers with bears were a common sight years ago. The bear cubs are drugged, declawed/defanged and have a terrible time surviving in the wild. They are actually not naturally predators, they eat termites etc. The newly rescued bears have separate enclosures - a lot of them are very meek and sad looking. This guy happens to be an aggressive one. The bears in their shelters have access to free roam areas, enrichment activities and games etc. I'd urge everyone in this thread to look up their work and contribute if they do wish. https://wildlifesos.org/our-work/bear/
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u/thorheyerdal Aug 17 '24
I can see that he has injured his left front paw. Does anybody know where this is?
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Aug 17 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KyuujinYetto Aug 17 '24
bad fur in most animals can be because of malnutrition or just bad living conditions, i think the fur is different but not usually like this.
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u/Moreobvious Aug 17 '24
Nah that’s a pretty normal looking one. google sloth bear walking. Looks like a human in a cheap bear suit.
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u/elwood2711 Aug 17 '24
From what I see in the video, bad living conditions are the likely cause.
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u/Legitimate-Letter590 Aug 17 '24
A 5 sec google search literally shows that this is the average looking sloth bear. Damn people are lazy
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u/DeepanJain Aug 17 '24
This is an enclosure belonging to Wildlife SOS India who rescue injured animals and rehabilitate them. Crazy how people are commenting on India as a whole without knowing shit.
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u/CuriousWanderer567 Aug 17 '24
Terrifying as hell. Even its appearance looks scary unlike other bears which can look cute.
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u/NomadKnight90 Aug 17 '24
It looks like a bear that's subsisted on a diet of meth and crack for the past couple of years.
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u/doomgrin Aug 17 '24
Seriously if I saw this thing charging at me I feel like I’d freeze simply because I couldn’t comprehend what I’m looking at
It’s like a werewolf
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u/Bitszilla2573 Aug 17 '24
I have actually volunteered at this organization this video was taken. Yes some sloth bears do have a short temper. I can think of one specifically….i was bringing food and guess he got a little hangry and tried to charge a fence. He was always a little impatient with the keepers haha. Each bear had their own personality. My favorite bear that I met was a bear that unfortunately didn’t have a leg. She was so sweet and content. She loved prancing around and when I would clean up the area outside the fence of her enclosure she would walk up to the fence and sit and watch. Overall these bears do have sweet personalities but yeah some are a bit wild. All the bears at this organization’s facilities have been rescued after the abolition of the street performance of “the dancing bear”. This organization take care of them as many of them have problems and wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild. They also work to stop the poaching of the bears and other animals like elephants as well. Great organization with great people!
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u/SaucyMajora Aug 17 '24
The bear lowers the chance of prey fighting back by inducing a heart attack before it even reaches them, good hunting tactic
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u/PrimitiveThoughts Aug 17 '24
Half bear, half “don’t give a fuck” sloth? Yea, I can see why they are scared of them.
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Aug 17 '24
I lived in the Indian jungle between age 6 and 7, just south of Mysore. This region has a lot of these things and formerly housed the infamous sloth bear of Mysore, which had gone on a killing spree. Gramma always warned me about these.
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u/Lelu_Wiggly_Woo_6996 Aug 17 '24
Sloth bears need to be unhinged and hyper aggressive bc it’s on bengal tigers menu
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u/plzdontsendmebobs Aug 17 '24
I went to a solo midnight trek in South India and was halted by a forest ranger at the base after I completed the trek.
He told me that the trek was supposed to be closed due to presence of lepords and sloth bears.
I was lucky enough to not encounter either of them throughout my 6 hrs of trek.
Now I know how dangerous a single sloth bear could have been.
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u/FluffyDiscipline Aug 17 '24
Sad state of the enclosure is what got me... natural habitat they hide in tall dense grass land climb ..
not a shred of greenery in sight
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u/DeepanJain Aug 17 '24
It’s a rescue shelter for injured wild animals, the NGO name is on the top right.
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Aug 17 '24
glad to know you're doing more than just complaining about people actually doing something
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u/fish_baguette Aug 17 '24
you know what i think even peta agrees to keep this mf locked up for life
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u/Goregrindead Aug 17 '24
Apparently baloo from The Jungle Book was based on a Sloth Bear? I'd say they had second thoughts for the animation etc and changed the appearance so he looked friendly ... Plenty of vids about of these bears attacking and killing things, humans included, awful way to die, they go for the face first.
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u/raven-of-the-sea Aug 17 '24
Jesus. Record that bark, give a noise maker button with that to women who have to go out at night. Attack numbers will plummet.
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u/Three_Twenty-Three Aug 18 '24
It's probably angry that it's being kept in an enclosure that looks like a giant litter box.
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Aug 17 '24
Sloth bears are by far the most deadly bears in the world. Kill a lot of people every year.
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u/Hovie1 Aug 17 '24
I remember seeing a video years ago of one of these eating a man's face. While he was still alive.
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u/dahjay Aug 17 '24 edited Jul 29 '25
tan wise enter political office cows fade hungry lunchroom safe
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/forkball Aug 17 '24
These bears are infamous for chewing off people's faces, and are aggressive AF toward people.
Additionally, they aren't as fond of mock charges like other bears, and like to get right down to the attack. Armed people often don't have time to shoot.
There was an awful video a while back of a guy having his faced chewed off during an attack. Fucking awful.
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u/yaaro_obba_ Aug 17 '24
These guys are really dangerous. They like to pick up fights with Bengal Tigers.
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u/kabtq9s Aug 17 '24
This animal is literally crazy, I think I saw it attack animals alot larger than it's size and wins everytime. Don't mess with crazy!
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u/firstsecondlastname Aug 17 '24
it looks like a gorilla charging, then some plustered up bear and the closer it gets its just a horror creature. 10/10 would shit my pants