A zoo in eastern China has reassured visitors that its Malayan, or sun bears, are real, not humans in disguise, after a video of one standing as a human surfaced, sparking rumors online.
Reacting to the video of the bear standing on its hind legs, Hangzhou Zoo said people "don't understand" the species, the BBC reports.
Social media users speculated that it could be a man in a costume and not a real teddy bear.
Malayan bears, the smallest bear species in the world, are on average the size of a large dog, the zoo reported. N1.
They are an endangered species, whose habitat is the rainforests of Southeast Asia.
In the video, the Malayan bear stands tall on the edge of its enclosure, trying to catch what visitors throw at it with its front paws.
Visitors on social media wondered how the bear could stand so upright on its slender legs, and were also "suspicious" about its wrinkled skin on its lower back, which some thought looked similar to a bad bear ward.
In a post written from the perspective of a Malayan bear, Hangzhou Zoo stated, "Some people think I stand as a person... You don't seem to understand me very well."
"When you think of bears, the first thing that comes to your mind is a huge figure and extraordinary strength... But not all bears are wild and dangerous," the zoo added.
He also states that Malayan or sun bears are "tiny, the smallest bears in the world".
When they stand on their hind legs, they are 1,3 meters tall, which is less than half the size of grizzly bears native to North America.
On Monday, journalists' visits were organized to see the bear, employees of the zoo said in a telephone conversation for the AP agency.
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