A viral video of a bear with a human-like gait from China’s zoo has sparked a controversy. X, formerly known as Twitter, is flooded with posts by users wondering if the bear is real or just a human wearing a fur costume to fool people.

The not-so-regular sight of an ‘upright’ standing bear has caught everyone’s attention with several videos doing round on Twitter and other social media platforms. The viral video from China’s Hangzhou Zoo showed a bear standing on his two feet almost like a human. Some users believe that the bear is not real but a human wearing a costume.    

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Amid barrage of memes and sarcastic posts, Chinese officials have declined these allegations. In a curt response, zoo administration said that “If you get someone to wear such thick fur in this summer heat, they won’t last more than a few minutes before they need to lie down.” The spokesperson for the zoo also added, “We are a government-operated zoo. There will never be situations like that.”

The zoo further confirmed that the bear in question is known as ‘sun bear’, which are known to stand up on its feet just like a human. It is usually found in Southeast Asia. The bear shown in the video is of another species, Malayan sun bear, which are smaller in size than the normal Sun bears.

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According to a wildlife biologist and the founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Malaysia, Sun Bears are very much like humans as they stand, walk like humans but also carry their baby on their hands, standing on hind legs. The biologist has been researching this species for 25 years now and it’s always astonishing to see a human-like bear.

Additionally, this species has now become very rare and listed on the red list created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The total number of Sun bears has shrunk by 30 percent in the last 30 years. Probably the viral attention could help them survive now.