Sloth bears in South Asia face severe welfare threats from habitat destruction and the historic but persisting dancing bear trade. Conservation and welfare efforts are closely intertwined.
The dancing bear trade subjected individual sloth bears to severe lifelong suffering: muzzle piercings performed without anaesthesia, social isolation from conspecifics, chronic pain from the rope, forced repetitive movements, and extreme psychological stress from close confinement and performance demands. While this practice has been effectively eliminated in India through a combination of legal enforcement, bear rescue, and kalanders (traditional bear handlers) support programmes, bears in rescued facilities still bear the physical and psychological scars of years of abuse. Wild sloth bears face a different welfare burden: habitat loss increasingly brings them into contact with human settlements where they face conflict, injury from snares and poison, and retaliatory killing. Conservation efforts that protect forest connectivity and provide coexistence tools to farmers directly improve wild sloth bear welfare.