Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 August 2

= August 2 =

Bear or person in suit
Would anyone here have any scientific evidence to conclude whether this is a real bear or a person in a bear costume?

Thanks, cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 13:58, 2 August 2023 (UTC)


 * @Cmglee This has been heavily covered in the recent news here in the UK and is now generally considered to be a genuine sun bear. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:05, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Unlike the joke where a 1-gorilla zoo hires a guy to be a gorilla and the increase in anthropomorphicness over the dead gorilla makes the zoo profitable again and one day he swings too high and screams in the lion area and the lion jumps on him and says shut up or we'll both be fired. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 15:01, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Also note, the Wikipedia article sun bear states "Sun bears can expose the patch while standing on their hindfeet as a threat display against enemies." What we have, in that image, is clearly a pissed off sun bear, performing a threat display.  -- Jayron 32 16:34, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Good joke! Thanks for the replies.
 * The articles I've read, including the above, do not give any evidence besides what the zoo spokesperson said (which they would lie about if they had gone through the trouble of dressing someone up).
 * It would also not be too difficult to add the patch to the costume if they were already making one.
 * I think the movement of the mouth looks very realistic, not having been around bears much, so that might be the key. However, the shape of the feet does look human.
 * Cheers, cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 17:17, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Occam's razor my dude. Either 1) The zoo has, unremarkably to anyone, had a sun bear on display for years, and for just one day when that picture was taken, dressed up a man in a very convincing and realistic sun bear suit, and that was captured by a video on that one day, which no one of the hundreds of visitors noticed it looked like a man in a bear suit, except for this blurry video captured that man in a bear suit, and then every day after that the regular sun bear was again, unremarkably, on display, or 2) That's just a sun bear.  -- Jayron 32 17:30, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Haha, thanks, @Jayron32. Cheers, cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 22:48, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Here is a video from two years ago of a sun bear in an zoo that stands up in a very similar way, but in other parts displays behaviour that would be very hard for a human actor to mimic in a believable way. --Lambiam 17:42, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, first part is indeed very humanlike. Pity the bears look like they're suffering in subsequent parts though. Cheers, cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 22:56, 2 August 2023 (UTC)


 * The current issue of National Geographic has an article about an animal refuge in Jordan, and the picture of a Syrian black bear standing up looks similar to the one in question. Bears can walk on their hind feet if they're of a mind to do so. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:42, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Does it have a wrinkly ass? I don't think the standing sun bear is really a person in a suit, but the ass-wrinkles were the most suspicious detail, for me. It's an unexpected revelation about the looseness of a bear's skin. Card Zero  (talk) 12:07, 5 August 2023 (UTC)