Actually, I think the sun bear may have been the collie guy dressed in a bear suit
What collie guy? This collie guy.
What bear? This Chinese bear:
A Chinese zoo has been forced to deny that its sun bear is actually a human in a costume, after video of one standing on its hind legs raised online accusations of a furry imposter.
A video clip of a bear rearing up and interacting with a group of people at a zoo in eastern Hangzhou city went viral on Chinese social media.
Many users posted comments doubting that the bear was real, with some alleging that its bipedal posture and wrinkled skin suggested that it was actually a human in costume.
But the zoo dismissed the rumours, saying in a statement written from the bear’s perspective on Sunday that the animal was real and its detractors “really don’t understand me”.
“The zoo director called me after work yesterday and asked if I’d been slacking off by finding a two-legged beast to replace me,” the bear, named Angela, said in the statement.
Well, I’m glad we’ve got that cleared up. The bear can talk – or rather, write – but only to reassure us that it’s not really a human.
Which makes me think of this bear, from the ballet Petrouchka:
That’s a movie of the ballet, and they might take some liberties with the stage version – such as, maybe that’s a real bear? I’m really not sure. But here’s a staged version (not a very good one – the crowd is meager and the stage is very shallow, which ruins many of the effects that depend on a big lifelike crowd) that shows you how it’s done in a live performance:
Oh, and the Chinese bear in the zoo? Here it is:
Retired ballet dancer?
That is an odd video of the sun bear. When standing, he really does look like a human in costume, at least from the shoulders on down. Once he sits and gets on all fours, I’d say he convincingly looks like a real bear.
or paul gleason, in the gorilla costume, in trading places,
Creature from the Uncanny Valley.
Bear with me… https://explore.org/livecams/currently-live/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls
Apropos of animal suits– the sun bear controversy reminded me of another of Gerard’s funnier posts, about a friend of his who wanted help giving a sermon at a local Unitarian church’s fiftieth anniversary. The friend (described as owning “three full-body yellow-feathered chicken suits — with heads. There are full-body bunny suits as well and there was once, briefly, a full-body pink gorilla suit, but that’s two other stories”) planned to jump out of a cake onstage to deliver the sermon– dressed not only in a chicken suit, but a chicken suit further ornamented with a red sequined bra and panties from the local “adult” toy shop. No, I am not making this up– I could never compete with Gerard in the outlandish detail department.
The anecdote took place in Seattle, no surprise there– and you can read the whole story as “A Small Favor” on Gerard’s website:
https://americandigest.org/a-small-favor-2/
(Photos of Chicken Suit Guy at the link)
PA Cat:
Yes, that’s one of about 45 essays I’m putting in the book.
If that is a guy in a bear suit, he has the longest neck for a human on the planet.
Neo–
Glad to know that story made it into the book. I’m just relieved that Chicken Suit Guy didn’t dress up like a cat for cake-jumping purposes. Of course, he could have moonlighted as the Tampa Bay Rays’ mascot, DJ Kitty.
Can’t resist: here’s DJ Kitty at a local fundraiser to make sure the Rays stayed in Tampa Bay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlEC2PsLq6w
(The Rays’ other mascot, Raymond, is supposed to be a sea dog, but I don’t see the resemblance.)
That does look like a man in a bear suit.
I didn’t know that sun bears are a thing.
Last week I found out that spectacled bears were a thing.
Paddington would have been one if they’d drawn him right.
Sun bear looks like a fat guy in skinny jeans.
I know an extremely long joke about a zoo that faked its gorilla….but that looks like a real sun bear to me.
That wrinkling around the butt does look extremely suspicious.
The only theater role I’ve ever held in my life was as an animal.
The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is a species in the family Ursidae (the only species in the genus Helarctos) occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly 70 centimetres (28 inches) at the shoulder and weighing 25–65 kilograms (55–143 pounds).
https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Sun_bear
FAIL.
Judging by the stance, my vote is far a man in a bear suit.
Sun Bear stands like a human. As Yancey Ward noted, its neck is too long but that could be achieved with a clever costume.
However, it moves like a bear, because the fore and hind limbs are roughly the same length. That doesn’t usually happen with humans.
Conclusion : Bear.
P.S. So why not another fake?
The Chinese and their governments have perpetrated a number of fakes –form over substance, the facade is all–things like whole new communities of fake, defective high rises–known as “Tofu-dreg” construction, buildings which look good on the surface, but which use such shoddy material that they start to crumble–for instance, large sheaths of facade sheeting falling off–in a matter of months.*
Then, there are the Chinese government’s efforts to present what they want to look like ecologically progressive results–covering bare hills with large sheets of green plastic netting which has fake green plants woven into it, spraying toxic green dyes on withered tress and bushes to make them look healthy, fields of metal stakes with some cotton-like balls on their tips to fool satellite cameras into thinking they are seeing successful agriculture, etc.**
I’ve also seen reports that some of China’s apparently impressive technological accomplishments are fake, too, images of things released to the media which are not actually working items, in production, or likely ever to be in production.
* See https://boingboing.net/2021/07/10/tofu-dreg-chinas-poorly-constructed-residential-towers.html
** See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvc7VymDa4c
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjrYFl7-qNE
Damn it, Mr. Burns, are you forcing Homer Simpson to be your prank monkey again??!!
Seriously, though, yes, that’s a real bear. Bears often look remarkably human like when they walk (as they sometimes do) on their hind legs. That’s where all the supposed sightings of “Bigfoot/Sasquatch” come from.
Really? Some think that’s a bear?
_______________________
The sun bear … is the smallest bear, standing nearly … 28 inches at the shoulder and weighing … 55–143 pounds.
–wiki
_______________________
We’re talking about a bear that weighs about as much as a smallish woman. That’s not what we see in the video.