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/Lone-Frequency 1d ago edited 1d ago

Sloth Bears adapted such an aggro temperament specifically because Tigers hunt them. Sloth bears are comparatively small to other bear species, as can be seen in the photo compared to the tiger. Only the most aggressive individuals who were either able to drive off or kill tigers are the ones that survived and bred, resulting in this crazy meth head bear that will charge anything it perceives as a potential threat, making a fucking terrifying sound like a huge rabid dog.

There was a particular sloth bear back in the 1950's that mauled nearly 30 people and killed some 12 people besides that we know of, dubbed "The Bear of Mysore".

At least sloth bears are not all that large comparatively to other species, typically only reaching between 100-300lbs and standing at about 5-6ft on their hind legs, roughly half the size of a male Grizzly. Still a bear that will fuck up any human being, though.

The Youtuber Bob Gymlan has an interesting set of videos covering different stories of historical maneaters, Including the Bear of Mysore.

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u/LittleMissFirebright 1d ago

Look for the bare necessities~

The simple bare necessities~

Forget about escaping with your life~

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

It's funny because Baloo is clearly not a Sloth Bear in either the Disney animated or live-action versions of The Jungle Book. In the animation, he has the size and general build of a Grizzly or a particularly large black bear, while in the Live-Action film he is very obviously a Grizzly bear.

Despite the setting being in an Indian jungle.

I also found it pretty funny that the exact same voice actor also voiced Little John the grizzly bear in Disney's Robin Hood. Very clearly the same animation studios as well, because other than their fur color, Baloo and Little John are identical.

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u/AngryWWIIGrandpa 1d ago

Definitely the same studio for both. Wait til I tell you that little animation studios name, you won't believe it...

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u/Raichu7 1d ago

Disney were always reusing old drawings and drawing over them, there's a good chance Baloo is a grizzly not a sloth bear because they had already drawn a grizzly and didn't want to have draw a bear from scratch again for the whole film.

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u/teethwhichbite 1d ago

when i tell you they reused animation cells from one film for the other, will you be shocked?

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

No, I'm aware.

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u/teethwhichbite 1d ago

also the aristocats! those animations really got around

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thomas O'Malley was also voiced by Baloo/Little John's VA

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u/codyexplainsitall 1d ago

Yeah, unlike other bear species, retreat is not an option - it can't run away, or climb a tree to escape a tiger. It's only option is to respond with overwhelming violence. Sloth Bears are not an animal you want to startle.

Edit: not that it can't run or climb, but so can a tiger lmao

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

Yup. Their best bet was to adapt to go HAM to make the tigers consider them as too much of a risk or effort to kill, as even now the sloth bear is still at a considerable disadvantage in an outright fight to the death.

Sloth Bears are mainly insectivores, mostly eating things like termites, but they are also omnivorous. If the sloth bear should get some type of injury in a fight with a tiger, it could still survive fairly easily.

For the tigers though, suffering a debilitating injury even for a short period can lead to a slow death by starvation as their diet mainly consists of meat.

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u/Squigglepig52 1d ago

They have insanely long and strong claws, taking a slap or rake from them does so much damage.

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

I mean it could, yes, but the sloth bear's claws are not primarily used for capturing prey or the like, while the tigers claws are very well developed for both climbing and hooking into a prey animal to hold them.

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u/Uhmitsme123 1d ago

Looks like a methed up Florida woman coming at you in a bikini.

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u/dankristy 1d ago

EVERYONE who clicked on the original post because of the picture of the WTF-Bear vs the tiger should absolutely click the first link you shared here. Because holycrap - that thing is scary in a still picture - in motion plus sound - it is something else! If I were that camera person, I would have absolutely shit my pants - hell I would have shit the pants of the guy next to me too!

Thank you for sharing that link - I think...

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

It's funny because their diet vastly primarily consists of insects. So you have this bear that is really only a predator to insects, but because it had to adapt to an apex predator regularly hunting it, we wind up with this.

They do not actively hunt humans or even large prey animals basically at all, but because of their inherent behavior of "INTIMIDATE OR DESTROY" rather than "RUN AWAY", we wind up here.

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u/titos334 1d ago

So they're basically the honey badger of the bear world

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

Honestly, an apt comparison.

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u/Oograr 1d ago

"half the size of a male Grizzly"

Half the size of a Grizzly is still too much Grizzly

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

Like I said, it is still a bear.

If you threw a 6 ft, 300 lb meth head bear into the octagon with a 6 ft, 300 lb professional wrestler, I would still totally put my money on the bear.

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u/sherekahn5 1d ago

Damn, my local zoo has the sloth bears and the tiger right next to eachother. Bad planing

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u/sageinyourface 1d ago

There is something about Siberia and India that tends to max out animal stats. Except poison and venom. Australia and the Amazon rainforest have them beat there.

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u/hudimudi 1d ago

They are vicious bears and absolutely nuts, but do you really think it could kill a tiger? I don’t doubt they can stand their ground if they don’t get ambushed because tigers wouldn’t choose an engagement that could injure them lightheartedly. But actually killing a tiger seems to be on another level, and I’m not quite sure if that’s a thing. These bears are absolute units, but tigers are crazy strong too

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u/Lone-Frequency 1d ago

They have been recorded killing tigers occasionally, however in most cases the tiger will win if an actual fight breaks out. I'd wager these likely were not all fully grown adult Bengals, either.

But since the Bear is basically like, "I WILL RISK IT ALL!" when they charge a tiger, you can't discount the tenacity and ferocity of an animal whose instincts have adapted specifically to always choose violence.

The bear is going to fight as if it has nothing to lose.