19th century dayak sun bear skull

During the nineteenth century - and after - the Dyak peoples of Borneo were notorious head hunters. They often decorated the human skulls they collected with swirling patterns. Unfortunately for certain other species, they also turned their attention to several kinds of animals, most characteristically the orangutan and the sun bear. When they acquired their skulls they decorated them in a similar fashion to the treatments they gave to human skulls. The sun bear is the smallest of the bear family and occurs over a wide area of South-east Asia.