Recently, viral videos and photos of a Malayan sun bear at a zoo in China standing on its two hind legs and interacting with tourists by waving its paws created a stir on social media.
Many pointed out the pant-like folds in the bear’s rear and its human-like gestures, claiming that it's not a real bear but a human in a bear suit!
It is a “bearly” believable sight, but is it true that it's actually a person and not an animal?
VERDICT:
FALSE
As the original theme song of Transformers goes, more than meets the eye!
Bears “transforming” from on all fours to an upright standing position are more common than one may think.
According to experts, bears tend to stand up to expand the coverage of their surroundings.
In an interview with NBC, Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill pointed out that the sun bear especially has this unique ability to stand straight up just like a human being (with a better posture than some humans, too!).
"Bears do that. Bears constantly stand up on their hind legs to look for things, look out for things, smell things... just looking for any part of danger or anything that's curious to them," he said.
Experts at Yellowstone Bear World also sang the same tune, assuring that a bear on two legs simply means “I sense something interesting”.
Regarding the folds on the bear's back while standing up, which resembles folded clothing, Magill explained that it was simply due to a sun bear's short hair.
He said because of this, the flaps of skin are easily visible as opposed to other bears with thicker furs, such as the grizzly bear or the black bear.
"It's like looking at a poodle and looking at a shar pei. A shar pei has all those wrinkles and folds in the skin. You see them much easier because the hair is much shorter. That's the case with the Malayan sun bear," he added.
The Hangzhou Zoo has also denied claims of the bear being a person in a suit but a sun bear named Angela.
In a cute post on its WeChat account, "Angela" explained that she is working hard and in fact, did not use a human substitute so she may slack off.
The post then went on to explain the difference between the smallest bear in the world and other "big brothers" species like the brown bear.
"Do you remember the above knowledge points? Don't get it wrong again!" reads the post.
Despite all the fiasco, it's hard to blame the sceptics as this is not the first time a zoo in China has grabbed headlines for its exhibits.
In 2019, British newspaper Daily Mail reported that Yancheng Wild Animal World in Changzhou sparked controversy after asking its workers to dress as gorillas.
That said, let's not lose our bearings over this and accept that some animals can do things humans do too.
So will the real sun bear, please stand up?
Sources:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wXvxcjazgJW7UagN6OJsAw
https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2023/08/01/zoo-sun-bear-not-a-man-in-a-costume
