Sloth bears share landscapes with millions of people across South Asia, causing conflict that drives population decline. Coexistence strategies are improving outcomes.
Sloth bears involved in conflict incidents with humans face retaliatory killing, capture, and occasionally mob violence causing acute suffering. Their defensive aggression when surprised explains the high injury rate, but surprise encounters are preventable through awareness and habitat management. Dancing bears rescued by Wildlife SOS carried years of trauma from tooth extraction, nose piercing, and performance coercion that required extensive rehabilitation. The welfare of individual sloth bears in human-dominated landscapes depends on coexistence education that reduces conflict frequency and severity while addressing the extreme welfare abuse historically associated with traditional bear exploitation.