The sloth bear, this photo taken yesterday when LC and I went to the National Zoo, is a funny creature.  I thought I would share my photo and some fun facts with you about the sloth bear, courtesy of the National Zoo:

Active mostly at night, the sloth bear is a noisy, busy bear. It grunts and snorts as it pulls down branches to get fruit, digs for termites, or snuffles under debris for grubs and beetles. A sloth bear uses its lips like a vacuum, making rapid, loud “kerfump” noises as it sucks insects from their nests.

Sloth bears lead solitary lives, and most are nocturnal. (In protected areas, they may be active during the day.) If threatened, these smallish bears will stand on two legs, brandishing their clawed forepaws as weapons.

Sloth bears are the only bears to carry young on their backs.

In the late 1700s, the first Europeans to see sloth bears described them as bear-like sloths due to their ungainly appearance and long claws.

The Hindi word for bear—bhalu—inspired the name of Rudyard Kipling’s bear character Baloo in The Jungle Book.