A Chinese family recently discovered that the “dog” they adopted in 2016 is actually a black bear.
Su Yun bought what she thought to be a Tibetan mastiff puppy (photo above) two years ago and brought it home with her family in Kunming city, Yunnan province, after a holiday vacation.
The “puppy” surprised Yun’s family with its appetite. Yun said the animal could down a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles every day.
They only found out two years later what kind of animal their “family dog” really was when it grew into a 250-pound black bear. No word yet on whether or not it was all a clever ruse by the bear to steal their picnic baskets.
Ms Su, from Yunnan Province, noticed it was illegal to raise or keep wildlife animals and decided to seek help from a local zoo. She asked Kunming Zoo for help however she failed to present a birth certificate of the bear to the zoo. Ms Su contacted Kunming Forestry Police and they suggested to send the bear to Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Centre.
The Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Center identified the animal as an Asiatic black bear, also known as the white chested bear. The World Wildlife Organization (WWF) lists the bear as a vulnerable species. The rescue center measured the animal to be around one meter tall. They had to sedate it before being transported.
Asiatic black bears could fetch a large amount of money when sold on the black market. Black bears primarily get hunted for their body parts, particularly the gall bladder , paws and skin.
Footage uploaded on Pear Video shows the one-metre-tall bear walking in a small cage as forestry police takes it to the zoo.The endangered bear weighs about 200 kg (440lbs), according to Ms Su.
