The Aswal, or Sloth-Bear 



such a size that there is only room for one, when the 

 other has perforce to walk behind alone. After a time 

 its fellow is discarded from the maternal back, and has 

 likewise to trust to its own limbs for the means of loco- 

 motion, when the first cub remounts. During the time 

 that both cubs are permitted to ride, they are carried by 

 the mother to the feeding-grounds, on arrival at which 

 they dismount, scrambling up again to the same seat on 

 the approach of danger. At the time that the two sexes 

 are in company, an equal degree of affection is displayed 

 by the male towards his partner, and when one is 

 wounded, a chorus of piercing shrieks is immediately 

 raised by its companion. When commenting on the 

 alleged statement that one wounded sloth-bear will 

 attack its fellow, Mr. Sanderson observes that "a 

 wounded bear's companions generally rush to him 

 to ascertain the cause of his grief, joining the 

 while in his cries, when he, not being in the best of 

 humours, lays hold of them, and a fight ensues, brought 

 about by the affectionate, but ill-timed solicitude of his 

 friends." 



The small size of the cheek-teeth of the sloth-bear 

 indicates that its diet consists neither of flesh nor ot 

 vegetable substances that require much trituration. 

 And although by no means averse to an occasional 

 meal of carrion, these animals subsist to a great extent 

 on ants and termites, or white ants, together with the 

 grubs of beetles and other insects. For digging out 

 such creatures from their subterranean haunts, as well 

 as for opening the nests of wild bees, for the sake of 

 the honey they love so well, their long curved claws are 

 admirably adapted. Regardless of the stings of either 

 ants or bees, these bears plunge their muzzles straight 

 into the nests, licking up the smaller insects or the 

 honey of the larger ones with their long extensile 

 tongues. Although the bees must almost certainly 

 make their presence telt in an unpleasant manner on 

 the naked nose of the bear, the shaggy fur with which 



393 



