daily activity pattern of malayan sun bear in dampa tiger reserve, mizoram, india

Sun bear (helarctos malayanus) is the smallest bear species and remains the least known bear ‎among the ursids. reliable information on population and activity pattern of sun bear has been ‎lacking, thereby creating difficulties for field managers and conservationists to develop ‎a management plan for their conservation. the study was an attempt to determine the habitat ‎preference and daily activity of sun bear through camera trapping and other signs survey ‎methods. in the study, we had a combined trapping effort of 647 trap-nights with a total of 18 ‎independent images of sun bear recorded between may 2014 and march 2016. distribution of ‎bear signs per hectare was found to be highest in the bamboo forest (0.398), owing to large ‎numbers of termite’s mounds. the photo capture rate of sun bear in dampa tiger reserve was ‎found to vary by different habitats with high numbers in degraded forest landscape within the ‎reserve. the variation was also influenced by the disturbance of humans in the area and other ‎feeding opportunities. the relative abundance index shows that old chikha has the highest ‎index of 1.89 with a mean value of 5.26 ±0.670 among all blocks in dampa tiger reserve. the ‎daily activity index suggests that malayan sun bears are more active during the crepuscular ‎period than diurnal. the highest activity was recorded between 1800- 2200 with 14.89% detection ‎probability. no activity was recorded during the midnoon phase. primary forests and degraded ‎forests with their large fruiting trees were represented as important habitat owing to the availability ‎of fruits, termites, and invertebrates. the study will hopefully be an important step towards ‎acquiring more knowledge on the ecology of the species and provide valuable information for ‎the conservation of the species and their habitat.