A new video showing a sun bear waving to visitors at a Chinese zoo has fueled claims that the animal is a human in disguise.
Hangzhou Zoo in China was obliged to certify the authenticity of their four-year-old sun bear "Angela" when photographs and video of the animal standing on its hind legs went viral.
A 12-second video shows the bear standing on its hind legs again, waving twice to zoo visitors as one cries "hello."
The clip comes after a zoological expert in the United Kingdom told the BBC that the animal in the first viral video was unmistakably a sun bear.
Dr Ashleigh Marshall, a Chester Zoo expert, did admit that sun bears "look a lot like people in their costumes" on occasion.
Marshall explained to the BBC that the loose skin on the bear's back, which viewers mistook for an ill-fitting costume, was an anatomical trait of the sun bear that allowed them to defend themselves from predators.
According to Marshall, the loose skin allowed the bear to "turn around in their skin" and fight back if an animal like a tiger seized them.
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People want to see for themselves, with visitor numbers at Hangzhou Zoo increasing by 30% after the news began trending on Chinese social media over the weekend, according to Zhejiang province-based Chao News.
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