China Zoo Denies Allegations That Star Attraction Is A Man In A Sun Bear Costume

It's an almost unbelievable scene. In a widely circulated video, a black bear at a Chinese zoo is captured standing upright on a rocky ledge, using its hind legs.

The bear playfully engages with visitors by waving its paws, making for a captivating spectacle.

The sun bear display at the Hangzhou Zoo, which is allegedly a well-liked tourist destination, however, appears to be more than meets the eye.

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According to Hangzhou Daily, the internet user who shared the video is certain that the "talented" bear is actually a human dressed as a bear.

The zoo rejected the allegation on Saturday and added that the day the video was filmed, it was 40 degrees Celsius, and a person wearing a suit would not be able to withstand the heat.

Despite this, some people still hold the misconception that the black bear was actually a human wearing a costume, according to Jimu News, a different Chinese news source.

They pointed to the bear's human-like waving and standing motions, as well as the folds that appeared to be pants around its back.

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Commenters on the Jimu story shared the same doubts.

“Its posture is more (upright) than humans!” said one.

Another claimed: “Bears’ forelimbs cannot be spread out to the sides. This is undoubtedly a human being.”

On a video of the attraction, a Weibo user wrote that the bear "looks like it's wearing a leather jacket."

This is not the first time a Chinese zoo has made news for unsettling exhibits.

According to the British publication Daily Mail, Yancheng Wild Animal World in Changzhou, a city in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, stirred controversy in 2019 by requesting that its employees dress like gorillas.

Unbelievably, a parent noticed two zookeepers bouncing about the gorilla enclosure while wearing full-body costumes.

In an effort to explain itself, the zoo claimed that the "human gorillas" were part of a special April Fools' Day event intended to amuse visitors. 

Additionally, it said that it had not anticipated that the arrangement would lead to misunderstandings among visitors.

And in 2013, CNN revealed that a zoo in Luohe, Henan, attempted to misrepresent a big hairy dog as a lion.

Beijing Youth Daily was informed by a visitor that when she and her kid approached the cage labeled "African lion," they were met with a bark rather than a thundering roar.

A Tibetan mastiff was identified as the furry beast.

Beijing Youth Daily stated that a white fox was on show in the leopard enclosure and that other animals in the park had been mislabeled in a similar manner, including another dog in the wolf cage.

The park informed CNN that the animals had been substituted for a number of unknown reasons and will be put back in their proper locations.