About the Asiatic Black Bear
The Asiatic black bear — also called the moon bear for the distinctive white crescent on its chest — is the bear of the Himalaya and northeast India. Found across the forested slopes from Jammu & Kashmir through Arunachal Pradesh, it inhabits both high-altitude alpine forests (up to 4,000 metres in summer) and lowland tropical forests of northeast India. A larger and more omnivorous bear than the sloth bear, the Asiatic black bear is an important seed disperser in Himalayan forests.
Asiatic black bears are highly seasonal in their movements — spending summer and autumn at high altitudes feeding on nuts, berries, and honey to build fat reserves, then moving to lower elevations or hibernating through the harsh Himalayan winter. They are more arboreal than most bears, climbing trees to raid beehives and access fruit. Human-bear conflict is significant in the Himalayan foothills where bears raid orchards and maize fields in autumn. The species is heavily poached for its gall bladder, used in traditional Chinese medicine.