A zoo in the eastern province of Zhejiang, China has denied its bears are really just humans in costumes. This was in reaction to a bizarre rumor that started when a video of one of its sun bears named Angela standing up went viral on social media.
The 15-second clip shows a Malayan sun bear standing on its hind legs, interacting with tourists. This footage was posted to Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) on July 27th, and quickly went viral internationally. This gave rise to the unhinged conspiracy theory the pictured sun bear is a person.
There are two major arguments being made for why this is a human, not an animal. The first is the animal’s behavior and movements seem human-like. Second, there are folds in the bear’s fur that seemingly resemble ill-fitting clothing, as this post on X (formally Twitter) explains:
All of this speculation caused the zoo to respond to these odd allegations. “Some people think I stand like a human, and it seems that you don’t understand me that much,” Hangzhou Zoo wrote on its official social media account, from the bear’s perspective. “Previously, some tourists thought that I was too tiny to be a bear. I have to emphasize again: I am a Malayan sun bear! Not a black bear! Not a dog! A sun bear!”
They also posted an audio recording on Chinese state media, where an employee denied the allegation. Pointing out “human beings cannot last for a few minutes in a fur suit,” considering the high temperatures (104F) in the area.
Wildlife biologist and the founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Malaysia, Wong Siew Te, also backed up the zoo’s statements. Saying the animal in the video is “a sun bear for sure.” “Sun bears could be very human-like,” he told NBC. “They stand like humans and walk like humans.” These bears can even carry its babies with their hands while walking on their hind legs.
Since these are are one of the smallest types of bears in the world, standing only 51 inches tall. Versus other species that can stand up to 110 inches tall, it’s no wonder people view these smaller bears as more human-like. Sadly, their population has decreased by 30% over the past 3 decades. This has landed them on the vulnerable animals’ red list created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“Sun bears are the least known bears in the world,” Wong said. “I believe the incident could call people’s attention on how sun bears may look like humans and hopefully could [let people know] that they are endangered species because of human activities,” namely, deforestation and hunting.
We really hope that this does bring more awareness to the plight of the sun bear. Though all these denials are also exactly what someone pretending to be a bear would say. You can check out the video for yourself below:
