Zoo in China accused of having people dress up as bears instead of real bears. #BEARGATE

This video has been making the rounds on social media over the last 24 hours. Is this a bear? Or a person DRESSED as a bear?? My gut reaction upon my first viewing is that this is 1,000% a human being in a bear costume. The way it stands, how skinny it is, the rolls on the back look like a costume, it’s wearing a Fit Bit, these are all signs that this is a human in a bear outfit. BUT, after doing some research (filtering through the comments on Twitter), I’m starting to think this is actually a real bear. I’ve never heard of a Sun Bear before, but a simple Google image search confirms that they are an odd looking bear:

Very peculiar look. These things are built like Hank Hill.

So upon further review. I think this might really be a Sun Bear. It’s proportioned like a Sun Bear, stands like a bear, can’t read a blitz, these are all traits of a real bear.

Final Analysis: The bear in question is a real Sun Bear.

Pretty sure.

PS: People acting like it would be far fetched for a zoo in foreign to dress up a person in an animal costume apparently haven’t been on the internet very long. One of our first blogs at Strange Brew centered on the drills these zoos run in order to prepare for an animal escape:

So yeah, it wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if these zoos were mixing in a human in a costume in the actual exhibits.