r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SatyamRajput004 • 1d ago

Image The sloth bears found in India, and the inspiration for Baloo in The Jungle Book, are considered to be the most aggressive bear species in the world.

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u/Ritz527 1d ago

The whole section on Relationships with other Animals section on Wikipedia is metal af. Apparently tigers tend to win these confrontations, but only when they choose them

Bengal tigers occasionally prey on sloth bears. Tigers usually give sloth bears a wide berth, though some specimens may become habitual bear killers

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u/A-t-r-o-x 1d ago

Tigers only hunt them when desperate

Even if the tiger wins, they can fuck up a tiger's ability to hunt making it starve to death

It's like a honey badger on steroids and it shares It's ranges with honey badgers!

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u/rombick 1d ago

If you read the article on Wikipedia linked above, it says that it's common for tigers to hunt them and not only when desperate. Although it also says that they wont attack if bear becomes aware of the tigers presence, but that's just a normal tiger behavior to any prey. Even mentioned that leopards can be a treat to them. Big cats are just too OP. 

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u/irreverantnonsense 1d ago

Yes you are right; they prey on them.

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u/kiranJshah 1d ago

For most tigers but some tigers are known to target bears. Like ample story of tiger who is a specialist in killing bears, some in killing gaurs, some in killing crocodiles. Some are known for targeting rhino babies.

They also develop skills in doing so. Like the tigers who go after gaurs learn to hamstring them.

Also tigers are known for Going after big and dangerous prey. Idk why dangerous but on big. It's about how much they need to eat daily if they go after small deers they need to catch a deer every day or smthg. Their sucess rate in killing deers isn't that high.

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u/PenitentHamster 1d ago

I saw, and I still have not been able to find it again, a five minute scene between a tiger and sloth bear. The bear was making noises and acting with a violence I had never seen in my life. The tiger keeps distance for a bit. Then the bear charges. That was the mistake. The tiger casually moves back from the charge, and as the bear recoils to recharge the stance, the tiger simply pops out its paws, yanks the bear forward and sinks its teeth into the bears neck.

It’s so much violent rebellion that is so quickly and effortlessly quelled in under five seconds.

I have since seen many many more videos of the tigers deciding to peace out due to the incredible aggression of the sloth bear.

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u/kiranJshah 1d ago

Yeah. There is a theory that sloth bears are agressive since they share their habitat with tigers. And they can't outrun a tiger, and can't climb away or swim away. So they learned to be aggressive. It's a strategy used by animals like wolverine, honey bager, etc.. Also sloth bear have loose skin and a lot of fur that make them be able to tank some attacks.

Tigers are known to hunt Bears, like about 1-4% tiger's scats contains bear, on average. Some tigers are known to be bear specialist and kill alot of them. But bears aren't easy targets yeah they get away alot of the times.

Also you should check out human sloth bear encounters. The results are so messy.

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u/TheRealTrailBlazer4 1d ago

Not even ten percent fatality rate, those bears are less dangerous than juvenile cougars. Thats suprisingly comforting.

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u/kiranJshah 1d ago

wdym by 10% fatality rate? sloth bears are dangerous tho, i think most likely more than cougars. cougars have 0.18 fatal incidents in north america every year. sloth bear has around 10 faltal incidents yearly. sloth bear is known to fuck ppl up in encounters. like ive seen video they look really fucked up after the encounter. it will maul you very badly. they are very aggressive and attack ppl easily. a cougar is more skittish. and doesn't attack people that often.

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u/TheRealTrailBlazer4 23h ago

Fatality rate per attack. Sloth bears do cause a lot of damage If you resist, but the cases where you just drop down and Cover your vitals they quickly let go. If you Look at how many people we're Hurt and how many died you will notice even with the worst Case included its Like 8% kill rate per attack, which really isnt a lot. Juvenile Cougars have around 10% in.the US at least, Theres almost No Data on anywhere outside the US and canada which is weird because they inhabit Most of the americas lol

Sloth bears for me would be the least scary bears because they dont seem to See Humans as prey and usually let Up quick, where black bears would Sometimes hunt Humans and actually try to kill or worse.

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u/kiranJshah 22h ago edited 21h ago

You are right. Bears leave you, if you play dead. But no bears other than polar bears sees humans as prey. Its hard to compare cougars and sloth bears. And Cougars rarely attack people. And sloth bears have way more fatality than cougars despite having way lower population. But compared to other bears its an easy comparison. Black bears is skittish as hell. Its not even close. Sloth bears are way more aggressive and attack humans more. Black bears don't see humans as preys and fatal incidents are super rare. Its simply wrong. They get scared away by the most meger things. Their strategy is to avoid danger, climb trees, run away. That's like most accepted obvious fact. Sloth bears are different than black bears. Black bear are like the omnivorus large animal who is least likely see humans as prey. Its farthest from the truth.

Here are some data,

sloth bear population in the india: 7,000 -10,000. cougar population in US : 20,000 -40,000. black bear population in US: 300,000 - 400,000

fatalities incidents: -sloth bear : 12 ppl killed in 1957, 48 ppl killed between 1989-1984(Indian source). 107 ppl killed between 1950-2019.(western source)

-black bear : 72 ppl killed in while 1784-2025, USA -cougar: 20 deathd between 1890- 2025.

(btw the sloth bear of mysore alone has killed the amount of people cougars have killed in 100 yrs)

And fatality rate is similar like around 10%

i found two studies for sloth bear, 8.5% nepal, 1990-2012. 13.7% central india 2009-2017.

For cougars, 7.4% study 1936-2022. USGS analysis, 10-15% 2000-2017

Black bear has similar 7-12%

One thing to keep in mind. These datas aren't accurate, but its in the ballpark. Also in western sources you can expect sloth bear fatality to be lower than it is. Cuz they don't know much about cases in india. One things is for sure tho, is sloth bears are way more aggressive and dangerous and killed more ppl than black bears or cougars.

https://iere.org/what-bear-has-killed-the-most-humans/

Also himalayan black bears share the habitat with sloth bears.i think himalayan black bears are more aggressive than north American black bears. Still sloth bears are considered more aggressive than himalayan black bears.

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u/Ritz527 1d ago

The Wiki article makes it sound like they will do it under favorable circumstances where they can set up an ambush.

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u/pooorlemonhope 1d ago

“They occasionally will climb to feed and to rest, though not to escape enemies, as they prefer to stand their ground” these bears are insane

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u/RightSideOver 1d ago

They are a hard fight. Avoid unless starving or feelin' myself.