The still photo looks sus af. The video, once it plops down and walks away on all fours, is clearly legit. Also, its jowls look pretty real.
It does make me think this sun bear has learned to stand up and mimic humans, goofing on how gawky and awkward we look though.
The bear is playing us. Like, it's the clever one in this whole interaction.
Bears are one of the few animals beside us that are plantigrade. They walk on the same parts of their foot that we do. This is in comparison to a dog or cat or a ton of other species that walks on their toes.
I imagine people see bears are plantigrade and unconsciously realize something is up with that, but not what. I don’t think the bear is mimicking our stance, as standing up like that sometimes to look around is a bear thing already.
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