The Asian black bear (Ursus thi­betanus) – also known as the Himalayan, Tibetan, or moon bear – is found in South­east Asia, the Himalayas, and parts of east­ern Asia, includ­ing Japan. This medi­um-sized bear, dis­tin­guished by the unusu­al white crest on its chest, is native to Asia and large­ly adapt­ed to arbo­re­al life. Accord­ing to Japan­ese cul­ture, the black bear received its white mark after being giv­en a silk-wrapped amulet by yama no kami (the moun­tain spir­it), which left the mark after being removed. In Hin­du mythol­o­gy, the black bear Jam­ba­van­tha is believed to have lived from Tre­ta Yuga to Dva­para Yuga. In the epic Ramayana, Jam­ba­van­tha helps Rama find his wife Sita and bat­tle her abduc­tor, Ravana.

The Asian black bear is a close rel­a­tive of the reclu­sive sun bear (Helarc­tos malayanus), the small­est mem­ber of the bear fam­i­ly. Also called the Malayan sun bear or ​“hon­ey bear,” it takes its name from the bib-shaped gold­en or white patch on its chest, which leg­end says rep­re­sents the ris­ing sun. The sun bear is native to the dense low­land forests of South­east Asia and parts of Chi­na and is found from south­ern Chi­na to east­ern India, and as far south as Indonesia.

<figcaption>The Malaysian Sun Bear</figcaption>

The pop­u­la­tions of both bears have declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly over the past three bear gen­er­a­tions, by more than 30%. The trees that make up their habi­tat are rapid­ly being lost to defor­esta­tion, and wildlife poach­ers and traders hunt them mer­ci­less­ly for body parts, fur, and the bile and gall­blad­der used in Chi­nese tra­di­tion­al med­i­cine. Some farm­ers kill the bears on sight because they eat crops such as oil palm, coconuts, and bananas, while adult females are fre­quent­ly killed so their cubs can be tak­en and raised as pets.

As a result of the alarm­ing decline in the bear pop­u­la­tion, sanc­tu­ar­ies have emerged through­out South­east Asia where bears find reha­bil­i­ta­tion, food, liv­ing space, enrich­ment activ­i­ties, med­ical pro­vi­sions and qual­i­ty care.

Ani­mals Asia estab­lished the Viet­nam Bear Sanc­tu­ary in Tam Dao, Vinh Phuc province in 2006 to pro­mote com­pas­sion and respect for all ani­mals and to end the bar­bar­ic bear bile trade. The sanc­tu­ary is spread over 11 hectares, with almost 30,000 square meters of semi-nat­ur­al out­door enclo­sure space designed to stim­u­late the bears’ nat­ur­al behaviors.

<figcaption>Sun Bear</figcaption>

Ani­mal lover Mary Hut­ton start­ed the Free the Bears char­i­ty from her fam­i­ly home in Perth, Aus­tralia, via local peti­tions and raf­fles in 1995. Today, the Free the Bears Fund pro­vides life­long care to over 220 res­cued bears across five sanc­tu­ar­ies and sup­ports over 300 res­cued bears in India. One of the sanc­tu­ar­ies, the Cam­bo­di­an Bear Sanc­tu­ary in Phnom Tamao, is home to the world’s largest group of res­cued Malayan sun bears and numer­ous Moon bears. In 2003, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Laos Depart­ment of Forestry, the Tat Kuang Si Bear Res­cue Cen­ter began con­struc­tion deep in the for­est near the famous water­falls. It was fol­lowed by a res­cue cen­ter in Cat Tien, Viet­nam in 2008. Con­struc­tion of addi­tion­al res­cue cen­ters in both loca­tions is cur­rent­ly in progress.