Chinese zoo denies its sun bears are humans dressed in costumes

August 1, 2023 5:36 AM

Hangzhou zoo insists animals are real after video of one standing on hind legs triggers online speculation

A zoo in eastern China has denied suggestions that some of its bears could be humans dressed in costumes, after video of one standing on its hind legs circulated online.

Video of a sun bear standing on its hind legs had circulated on social media, with people noting that its slender legs and folds of fur made it look like a human was acting the part of the bear.

But in an audio recording circulating on WeChat, a spokesperson for the zoo said the animal was real and that such deception would not happen at a state-run facility. He also noted that in the 40C (104F) summer temperature, a human in a fur bear suit “would not last more than a few minutes before collapsing”.

Update: Crowds flock to Chinese zoo after ‘human in a costume’ bear goes viral

Visitors have flocked to a zoo in eastern China’s Zhejiang province after a video of one of its bears went viral with some suggesting she looked so human she could be a staff member in a bear suit.

Attendance numbers at Hangzhou zoo have risen by 30% to about 20,000 a day, with some people travelling overnight, since a video of the Malayan sun bear, named Angela, became a trending topic on Chinese social media over the weekend, Zhejiang-based Chao News reported.

“After seeing this bear standing up on the internet, I wanted to see how it looks in real life, so I came here,” said a man surnamed You, who said he had only half-believed the video he saw online, Chao News reported.

posted by Pachylad (42 comments total)

My "bear is not actually human in a suit" t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my t-shirt.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 5:39 AM on August 1, 2023 [39 favorites]

Meanwhile, man spends $15K on high-tech dog costume to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a dog.
posted by wjt at 5:48 AM on August 1, 2023 [12 favorites]

... but this is just what bears look like? Every time there's a video of bears ransacking a campsite or whatever, it always looks like drunk guys in mascot costumes.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:03 AM on August 1, 2023 [37 favorites]

Thus it comes to pass, a long standing joke between me and my spouse becomes a thing on the internet. I'm almost afraid to ask if videos of people in bear suits have been offered up as "proof" yet.
posted by mollweide at 6:06 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

Well, that's what they would say, isn't it?
posted by Naberius at 6:10 AM on August 1, 2023 [9 favorites]

THAT BEAR WAS CREATED IN A WUHAN LAB!!!!!1!!!! I'm running for president now. Send me money.
posted by NoMich at 6:18 AM on August 1, 2023 [26 favorites]

I still have my suspicions about the pantomime horse enclosure, though.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:19 AM on August 1, 2023 [17 favorites]

Seriously, though, costume or not, there is no way that a human being can have a sitting motion like that. No way. Case closed. (You can still send me money for my "presidential bid" if you want.)
posted by NoMich at 6:20 AM on August 1, 2023 [8 favorites]

Meanwhile, man spends $15K on high-tech dog costume to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a dog.

>Iggy Pop has entered the chat
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:32 AM on August 1, 2023 [19 favorites]

there is no way that a human being can have a sitting motion like that

yes, that beast is clearly bear-assed
posted by chavenet at 6:33 AM on August 1, 2023 [18 favorites]

He also noted that in the 40C (104F) summer temperature, a human in a fur bear suit “would not last more than a few minutes before collapsing”.

That's why many of us wear only birthday-style suits during the day at Burning Man.

We still collapse.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:46 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

posted by Pachylad

:face-rubbing-chin-thoughtfully:
posted by Etrigan at 6:47 AM on August 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

this is the more cowbell of ridiculous posts for the day

10/10, would recommend to friends/family
posted by elkevelvet at 7:10 AM on August 1, 2023 [6 favorites]

Looks like somebody has read "The Hotel New Hampshire."
posted by martin q blank at 7:15 AM on August 1, 2023 [10 favorites]

Reminds me of two things.

A Zoo in China that got into hot water by grooming a Tibetan Mastiff to look like a Lion.

The IgNobel Prize for a dude who wore a Goat costume to spend life as a Goat to get a Goats-eye perspective on life.
posted by indianbadger1 at 7:40 AM on August 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

Somewhere, David Letterman is frowning at the fact that he and his writers never tried out Can A Guy In A Bear Suit Fool People At The Zoo? on his show.
posted by delfin at 7:52 AM on August 1, 2023 [19 favorites]

:face-rubbing-chin-thoughtfully:

Ma'am, I may be but a mere pachy lad, but surely no ursine fellow!
posted by Pachylad at 7:56 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Chinese zoo denies its Ro-men are humans dressed in costumes
posted by stevis23 at 8:05 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Over in the free thread someone was (correctly) noting that "Jobs are terrible," but maybe this could be an exception (as long as you got breaks every fifteen minutes to get out of the suit and cool down, like the suited "characters" do at Disney World).
posted by wenestvedt at 8:51 AM on August 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

is there a corollary bigfoot myth in China? I know there is Yeti in the Himalayas. In the US, we have bigfoot/sasquatch, which I'm pretty sure 99% of 'sightings' have been a bear on its hind legs. we have lots of bears, and they do stand on their hind legs.
posted by supermedusa at 8:54 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

There's another cryptid that's really just "bears with mange" tldr the woods are dark and bears get weird out there.
posted by muddgirl at 9:17 AM on August 1, 2023 [5 favorites]

"such deception would not happen at a state-run facility."


bwah hahahahahahahahaha. Oh, that is rich. I'm sure that is deeply convincing to the Chinese.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:30 AM on August 1, 2023 [8 favorites]

Meanwhile.....
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:32 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

Ooh, my partner and I recently visited Malaysia and went to a conservatory for these guys! To my eyes, they behaved more human than your average north american bear.

They're also very small, so if it was a person in a bear suit they'd have to be very little. I'd sooner believe they're animatronic than a guy in a bear costume.
posted by Pitachu at 9:36 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

'... needs a shave, and wears a fur coat'
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:39 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

bears get weird out there

It's a well known fact that 80% of all bigfoot sightings are reported by bears.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:48 AM on August 1, 2023 [10 favorites]

Came to see if anyone mentioned The Hotel New Hampshire and was not disappointed, but I feel compelled to drop this absolutely devastating quote:

In a gray cage, with nothing painted on it, a dark figure sat swaying in place, rocking to some sad inner tune—its nose too long, its rump too broad, its neck too thick, its paws too short to ever be happy.

I am not a big fan of this book but that description has stayed with me and makes it hard to find the idea of a human bear anything but profoundly sad!
posted by babelfish at 9:56 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Oh, right. It's that book by John Irving that has a bear in it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:21 AM on August 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

What's the impact on your Chinese social credit score if you've been discovered wearing a costume and pretending to be a bear at a zoo?

Though I never want to live in a society with a social credit score (in the US financial credit scores are bad enough and we already have elements of it with trusted traveler / TSA type lists and other similar things etc.), part of me wants to know there is a rules based logic that some Chinese bureaucrat somewhere has to create a new rule....and is just sitting there pondering if being a costumed bear is a positive or negative for society. I'm team positive.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:46 AM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

"It's that book by John Irving that has a bear in it."

I'm afraid that doesn't narrow it down.

There was a chart that I can't find right now that listed recurring themes in John Irving novels, bears being one of them. I haven't read his most recent works (A Son of the Circus has proven impenetrable to me) but I wonder if he still includes bear references.
posted by jzb at 11:00 AM on August 1, 2023

But do they have a Grass Mud Horse?
posted by mike3k at 11:06 AM on August 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

[more inside]

Technically not true here
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:28 AM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

It would be crazy if we were all bears and we had just convinced ourselves that those other ones are the real bears.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 11:32 AM on August 1, 2023 [8 favorites]

Someone once asked me if I was a bear. I wasn't wearing a costume.
posted by Gorgik at 12:16 PM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

There was a chart that I can't find right now that listed recurring themes in John Irving novels, bears being one of them

I know the one. The summer of 1993, I was recovering from a serious illness and barely left my house for two months. Over the course of late May- early June, I read everything Irving had ever published up to, I suppose, A Prayer for Owen Meany, which was then his most recent.

I enjoyed them, but read back-to-back, they fused into one long narrative about a rich kid on his university wrestling team (although he aspires to be a writer). After departing school early, he goes to Vienna, has an emotionally complex relationship with a sex worker, and has a finger bitten off by a bear.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:34 PM on August 1, 2023 [8 favorites]

I've spent a lot of time in zoos in China, (← warning: sad pictures of zoo animals) though I don't think I visited the Hangzhou zoo in question, and it's surprising to me that this caught so much attention.

All my experience was a decade or so ago, but I regularly saw bears and other animals doing ridiculous things both to try to get food from zoo visitors or as part of the "entertainment." Definitely saw bears acting like this trying to get snacks and milk thrown into their pit enclosure in the Chongqing Zoo and probably a few others. Also very often saw ordinary pet-type dogs chained up on display, like the Labrador retriever in my link above. The Kunming Zoo had either a bear or a collie that did simple math (can't quite remember and don't have the picture easily available) and a week or so after my visit a zookeeper was attacked by a mistreated tiger, if I remember right. There are many animal attacks at Chinese zoos, and I don't recommend searching out the videos.

At most zoos you could pay a small fee to have a picture with a chained up animal like you see in these tourist photos with bears at the Tianjin zoo.

Definitely one of the most depressing stories I've worked on.
posted by msbrauer at 12:39 PM on August 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

Just like a couple of Rory Calhouns!
posted by credulous at 12:47 PM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

The most likely outcome, based on a Bayesian analysis of zoo bear videos, is that 95% of all bears are humans dressed in costumes.
posted by xigxag at 1:37 PM on August 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

BearGPT
posted by dcormier at 2:20 PM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

It doesn't seem all that surprising that a bear deprived of any exposure to its own kind would grow up to act like the only creatures it ever sees and on which it relies for survival.
posted by dg at 3:11 PM on August 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

It doesn't seem all that surprising that a bear deprived of any exposure to its own kind would grow up to act like the only creatures it ever sees and on which it relies for survival.

I am reminded of this photo.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:54 PM on August 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

Meanwhile, man spends $15K on high-tech dog costume to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a dog.

My first reaction is, "Only $15K?" I know fursuit makers that charge more than that.
posted by Spinda at 6:56 AM on August 2, 2023