Visitor numbers at Hangzhou Zoo have gone up by 30 percent to around 20,000 a day since a video of the Malayan bear, named Angela, became a trending topic on Chinese social media over the weekend, Zhejiang province-based Chao News reported.
It was when Angela was standing up that some netizens said she looked like someone wearing a bear suit.
The zoo has sought to refute the rumour in posts on its official WeChat account and in interviews with local media, saying that Angela is "definitely not a human".
"Our zoo is government-run, so that kind of situation would not happen," a member of staff said, according to local media.
Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; Additional reporting by Jiawei Wang; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Persons:
Angela, Chao, Qian Ming, netizens, Martin Quin Pollard, Jiawei Wang, Raju Gopalakrishnan
Organizations:
Hangzhou Zoo, Chao News, Hangzhou TV, Weibo, Thomson
Locations:
BEIJING, China's Zhejiang, Zhejiang province, Suzhou, Hangzhou