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Animal Themes
Endangered Animals Theme Unit
Mammals
 Sun Bears

Sun Bears
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.7

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    hence, illegal, lifespan, petite, soles, loss, nearly, aside, dangerous, pounds, several, weigh, appearance, crescent, extract, knowledge
     content words:    Southeast Asian

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Other Languages
     Spanish: Los Osos Malayos

Sun Bears   
1     Measuring about 4 feet long and weighing less than 150 pounds, sun bears are the smallest of all bears. They are also called honey bears, dog bears, or Malayan sun bears. Though sun bears may not be as big as, say, polar bears or Kodiak bears, both of which can grow to more than 8 feet long and weigh over 1,000 pounds, they are just as dangerous! So, don't let sun bears' petite size fool you.
 
2     Identifying sun bears is easy. They wear shorthaired black coats and decorate their chests with a patch of yellowish crescent that looks like the letter "U." According to folklore, this chest mark represents the rising sun and is how sun bears got their name. Sun bears have short muzzles in orange or gray. Their tongues are unusually long, extendable to nearly 10 inches in length. When sun bears are hungry, they can simply stick their tongues into a tree hole or crevice to extract food hidden inside. Sun bears are omnivorous, feeding on both plants (such as honey and fruits) and animals (rodents and termites.)

Paragraphs 3 to 4:
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