Sloth bear of Mysore

Common card · No. 219884

The Sloth bear of Mysore was an unusually aggressive Indian sloth bear responsible for the deaths of at least 12 people and the mauling of two dozen others in 1957. It was killed by Kenneth Anderson, who described it in his memoirs Man-Eaters and Jungle Killers: [Sloth] Bears, as a rule, are excitable but generally harmless creatures. This particular bear carried the mark of Cain, in that he had become the wanton and deliberate murderer of several men, whom he had done to death in most terrible fashion, without provocation. The reasons given to explain the Mysore sloth bear's unusual behaviour varied. Some of the natives within the bear's killing range thought that the bear was a sow taking revenge on humanity after her cubs were stolen. Others thought that it was a male which had previously abducted a young girl as its mate, only to have her rescued by the villagers, thus inciting the bear's anger. Kenneth Anderson believed that the bear had previously been injured by humans and altered...

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