A zoo in China is facing a burning question from the internet: Is one of their bears actually a human in a bear suit?
The intrigue began when footage of Angela, a Malayan sun bear, standing on her hind legs at Hangzhou Zoo in the eastern province of Zhejiang spread on Douyin, a TikTok-style social media site, last month.
Commenters speculated the animal was really a person in a bear suit due to its upright, human-like posture and folds of fur that resembled clothing. Another angle showed a bear appearing to wave to visitors. The videos have been viewed millions of times.
Hangzhou Zoo officials denied the allegations and insisted their bears are real.
"I promise it’s real," the zoo’s deputy director said on TODAY, according to an NBC News translation. "People are welcome to come see for themselves."
The zoo also issued a statement on its official social media account, written from the perspective of Angela.
"Some people think I stand like a human, and it seems that you don’t understand me that much," Hangzhou Zoo said. "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!"
Experts also told NBC News the animal appeared to be a Malayan sun bear and not a person in costume.
"Sun bears could be very human-like," Wong Siew Te, a wildlife biologist and the founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Malaysia who has been researching the animals for about 25 years, told NBC News. "They stand like humans and walk like humans."
Ashleigh Marshall of the Chester Zoo described how Malayan sun bears are much smaller and slimmer than other bears, and have unique features like huge claws for climbing and skin folds.
"The extra skins are a really important adaptation for sun bears … so it’s actually to avoid predators," Marshall said on TODAY.
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