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Mysterious sloth bear deaths raise alarm at Sri Lanka’s largest national park
Malaka Rodrigo
29 Mar 2025
Asia
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Wilpattu, SRI LANKA – After a fruitful safari at Wilpattu National Park, wildlife photographer Rohan Fonseka and his colleagues ventured toward the Maradanmaduwa area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sloth bear. Their luck held as a full-grown bear emerged from the dry zone forest, offering rare and memorable photo opportunities. But what seemed like a rewarding end to the day turned tragic the next morning, when the same bear’s lifeless body was found near the corridor of the Maradanmaduwa wildlife circuit bungalow.
It was the second sloth bear death reported in Wilpattu in March, as just two weeks prior, a cub had been discovered dead, park warden Suranga Rathnayake confirmed. In January, another cub was also found dead, bringing this quarter’s death toll of sloth bears within the park to three.
These consecutive deaths have raised alarm among conservationists, particularly as sloth bears (Melursus ursinus inornatus) are elusive and rare in Sri Lanka. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) had warned in December 2024 of an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) among wild boars. As opportunistic feeders, sloth bears are known to scavenge carrion, which causes concern of possible zoonotic transmission of ASF to these sloth bears.
Wildlife veterinarian Chandana Jayasinghe, who oversees Wilpattu for the DWC, told Mongabay, “So far, we have no evidence of African swine fever transmission to other species.” However, the bear carcasses were heavily infested with ticks, pointing toward possible infection of tick fever, which is a common cause of illness and death in wild mammals. Full confirmation is pending laboratory analysis of tissue samples, said Jayasinghe, who overlooked the postmortem examinations of the three dead bears.
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