Mammals of Vietnam

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 52. Chapters: Clouded leopard, Gaur, Asian Black Bear, Irrawaddy dolphin, List of mammals of Vietnam, Leopard Cat, Sambar, Indian Elephant, Banteng, Crab-eating macaque, Indo-Chinese leopard, Indian Muntjac, Binturong, Black giant squirrel, Indochinese Tiger, Marbled Cat, Malayan Porcupine, Lesser False Vampire Bat, Asian House Shrew, Greater Mouse-deer, Sunda Pangolin, Stump-tailed macaque, Crocidura phanluongi, Small-toothed Palm Civet, Owston's Palm Civet, Hog Badger, Northern pig-tailed macaque, Northern Treeshrew, Java Mouse-deer, Lesser Mouse-deer, Short-tailed Gymnure, Heude's Pig, Asian Gray Shrew, Red-throated Squirrel, Asiatic Brush-tailed Porcupine, Asian Red-cheeked Squirrel, Southeast Asian Shrew, Papillose Woolly Bat, Spotted Giant Flying Squirrel, Painted Bat, Kloss's Mole, Gray-cheeked Flying Squirrel. Excerpt: The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the Moon bear or White-chested bear is a medium-sized species of bear, largely adapted for arboreal life, which occurs through much of southern Asia, Korea, northeastern China, the Russian far east and Honshu and Shikoku islands of Japan. It is classed by the IUCN as a vulnerable species, mostly due to deforestation and active hunting for its body parts. The species is morphologically very similar to some prehistoric bears, and is thought by some scientists to be the ancestor of other extant bear species. Though largely herbivorous, Asian black bears can be very aggressive toward humans, and have frequently attacked people without provocation. The species was described by Rudyard Kipling as "the most bizarre of the ursine species." Biologically and morphologically, Asian black bears represent the beginning of the arboreal specialisations attained by sloth bears and Sun bears, though these traits are not as maximally attained in Asian black bears. Asian black bears have karotypes nearly identical to those of the five other ursine bears, and, as is typical in the genus, they have 74 chromosomes. From an evolutionary perspective, Asian black bears are the least changed of Old world bears, with certain scientists arguing that it is likely that all other lineages of ursine bear stem from this species. Scientists have proposed that Asian black bears are either a surviving, albeit modified, form of Ursus etruscus, specifically the early, small variety of the middle Villafranchian or a larger form of Ursus minimus, an extinct species which arose four million years ago. With the exception of the age of the bones, it is often difficult to distinguish the remains of Ursus minimus with those of modern Asian black bears. Asian black bears are close relatives to American black bears, with which they share a European common ancestor which is thought to have diverged 3 million years ago, though genetic evidence is inconclusive.