Sun bears have a knack for walking upright, Dr Wong Siew Te said, adding that it is actually part of their natural behaviour in the wild. - WONG SIEW TE
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): When video footage of a sun bear in a zoo in eastern China became an Internet sensation, the question on everyone’s lips was: Is that a man pretending to be a bear?
The only other explanation was that the bear, like Paddington, had “manned up”. How else would it be standing and waving enthusiastically to the crowds or strolling around the enclosure?
Frenzied speculations in the online world tend to climax at the big reveal, and in this case, the world waited with bated breath for the Hangzhou zoo bear to be unmasked, and the sleek fur-coat costume to slip off.
That day never came, nor will it ever. Because, yes, it was a real bear!
Just to be sure, we checked with an expert who knows a thing or two about sun bears.
Dr Wong Siew Te, wildlife biologist and founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sabah, said he has no doubt that the sun bear is real.
It turns out sun bears have a knack for walking upright, and that is actually part of their natural behaviour in the wild, he added.
It does not help that sun bears are among the least understood bears on the planet, Dr Wong said. “Sun bears are human-like, they are able to stand up straight and walk just like us by paddling.”
That way, they also can survey their surroundings and pick up scents from higher ground and farther, he added.
The sun bear gets its name from a tell-tale orange to cream, crescent-shaped chest patch, which is sometimes shown off to try to intimidate enemies.
The bear’s ability to lock its knees also came into focus during online debates, but Dr Wong said it was simply a posture that made the bear feel comfortable.
Being a zoo bear, it is also likely a result of “positive reinforcement”. “Over time, it has learnt that when it walks straight, it will get attention from people, and when it waves its hands, it will get food,” he added.
The bear could also just be trying to balance itself so that its joints would not hurt from standing for too long, Dr Wong said.
And then there is the bear’s loose skin – which also led people to conclude that it was a human in bearskin. Dr Wong said sun bears have loose skin to act as an armour for them when they get into fights, as it protects them from being injured severely during forest scuffles.
“During mass fruiting season, sun bears will eat in abundance and store a lot of fat in their body. The loose skin will then swell up, giving them more room to store fat,” he added.
Dr Wong said female sun bears love to cradle their cubs, much like human mums. This is a trait unique to the sun bear. He added that he felt goosebumps the first time he saw this behaviour.
He said: “When female sun bears have babies, they actually hold their cub with both of their hands while standing up. It is just exactly like a human wearing a bear suit holding a baby.
“But this is what they do. It is just that we humans rarely see this kind of behaviour.”
The Hangzhou sun bear made waves even in the United States, where The New York Times got Dr Charles Robbins, director of research at the Washington State University Bear Centre, to weigh in on the debate.
He said: “Presumably, the bear has been rewarded with food by the crowd for standing, so it learnt very quickly to do that.”
He added that it is not unusual for bears to rely on their hind legs.
Last Saturday, Hangzhou Zoo pawed away any suggestion that the bear was a human in disguise. Just to be sure, the zoo released the next day a statement on its website written by “Angela the Malayan sun bear”. It said she was a real bear.
The sun bear at the Hangzhou zoo is from China’s Yunnan province, and is one of two subspecies of sun bears, said Dr Wong. Angela, the Malayan sun bear, is distinct from the Borneo sun bear – which is the world’s smallest bear species, he added.
Dr Wong and a team of 28 employees run the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, which is home to more 40 sun bears.
The bears love spending time in the trees, climbing as high as 30m to 40m. Dr Wong said sun bears are like engineers and architects of the jungle that build nests for other species of wildlife to use and help keep the forest healthy.
Said Dr Wong: “We have to make sure that these bears are in our forest because they are a keystone species and will benefit both plants and animal species.”
And a forest without bears would just be un-bearable.
