A zoo in China is struggling to prove that Malayan sun bears are not people in costume after visitors claim that some bears’ behavior is too human-like. In the video of the bear named Angela, which was shared on social media and went viral, it is seen that she is standing on her hind legs and sitting and staring at the viewers before walking away.
Hangzhou Zoo, in eastern Zhejiang province, insisted the video was of a bear, saying these bears were smaller than the bears people are used to seeing. Standing on their hind legs, sun bears are only 129 cm tall, making them the smallest of their species at 279 cm for the most part.
“Some people think I look like a human being, and apparently you don’t understand me that much,” the Hangzhou Zoo wrote on its social media account last weekend, in the bear’s mouth. Speaking from the point of view of Angela the bear, the post continued: “Previously, some tourists thought I was too small to be a bear. I have to emphasize again: I am a Malayan sun bear! Not a black bear! I am not a dog! I am a sun bear!”
It’s not unusual for Malayan sun bears to stand on their hind legs. Because it allows them to reach higher ground and better observe their surroundings.
An employee from the Hangzhou Zoo told a Beijing TV station that Angela is not human. “In a 40-degree summer heat, a person dressed in leather and fur will faint in a matter of minutes,” the employee said, adding that using stunts is already not possible in state-owned zoos.
However, when it comes to China, suspicions that Angela is human are not entirely unfounded. Because some zoos in China are accused of doing similar things. In 2019, a privately owned safari park in eastern Jiangsu province faced backlash after it hired a human to disguise itself as an orangutan. The zoo later claimed it was an April Fool’s joke.
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