People are traveling for hours just to see if a sun bear at a Chinese zoo is a human wearing a fur suit or just a bear with weird folds on its rear end
CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
- People are flocking to a Chinese zoo just to see a viral Malayan sun bear.
- Videos of the bear standing on its hind legs in a human-like stance ignited a fierce debate online.
- Visitors said they wanted to see the sun bear to figure out if it's real, or a guy in a fur suit.
People are flocking to a zoo in China because they want to see for themselves if a viral Malayan sun bear is an actual bear, or just a guy in a fur suit.
The bear became the star attraction of the Hangzhou Zoo after photos and videos of it standing on its hind legs in a human-like stance — with odd, pant-like folds on its rear end — went viral.
Some visitors traveled all the way from another province just to see the bear.
"When we saw the video online, we especially took the high-speed rail from Suzhou just to see this bear. We took an overnight train ride to rush over here. The bear is so cute," a tourist told the Hangzhou Television Station. Suzhou is around two and a half hours — and a 149-mile drive — from Hangzhou.
A representative from the Hangzhou Zoo told the Chinese news outlet Chao News that the number of daily visitors to the zoo has gone up by around 30% since the photos went viral. And, yes — they were there for the bear.
"I saw this bear standing upright online. I came because I wanted to see what it would look like in real life," a tourist told Chao News.
"When I saw the bear standing up online, it looked just like it was trained by a breeder. That was very interesting. It didn't feel possible so I came down just to see if it was real. Touring the exhibition also made me feel very happy," another tourist told Chao News.
People on China's Twitter-like Weibo have been engaged in a fierce debate over the last week over whether the bear is real.
"It must be a human. You can see the pants folding," said one person on Weibo.
But some people felt that it was ludicrous for someone to pose as a bear given the sweltering hot summer.
"This must be a real bear. Nobody would put on a fur suit during such a hot summer, no matter how much money you pay them. He or she will definitely get a heat stroke," said another person on Weibo.
The zoo pushed back on the claims and provided more details about the animal in a statement published on July 30.
"Some people think that I'm a human because of the way I stand. It looks like you don't understand me very well," read the statement, which was written from the perspective of the bear.
Representatives from the Hangzhou Zoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Additional reporting by Matthew Loh.