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☆ Sun bear: World's smallest bear finally has its time in the sun. But is that a good thing?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Hong Kong CNN —The world’s smallest bear is finally having its moment in the sun – thanks to a viral video that sparked a conspiracy theory on Chinese social media. “With all the media attention surrounding the (sun bear videos) we have a good opportunity to further educate ourselves to save this species.”Taronga Zoo is not alone. A sun bear inside at the Vietnam bear rescue centre, in Tam Dao national park, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, 09 July 2019. Cubs are especially cute and docile and can be easily tamed compared to bigger and more aggressive bears, said bear expert Dave Garshelis, chair of the IUCN SSC Bear Specialist Group. Will the viral videos actually help save these amazing bears?

Persons: Angela, ”, Wong Siew Te, Wong, Taronga zookeeper Logan Dudley, “, ” Afiqah Nasir, Bosco Chan, ” Chan, Minh Hoang, Dave Garshelis, Thomas Stamford, Garshelis, Shao Zhenzhen Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, CNN, Sun Bear Conservation Center, Taronga Zoo, Singapore Zoo, World Wildlife Fund, Cubs, IUCN SSC Bear Specialist Group, Thomas Stamford Raffles, Singapore Locations: Hong Kong, Hangzhou, China, Sabah, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Sydney, Australia, Vietnam, Tam Dao, Vinh Phuc, British, Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore

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

In a statement written from the perspective of a sun bear named “Angela,” officials from Hangzhou zoo said people “didn’t understand” the species. In 2013, a city zoo in the central Henan province angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan Mastiff dog as a lion. Visitors at another Chinese zoo, in Sichuan province, were shocked to discover a golden retriever sitting in a cage labeled as an African lion enclosure. World’s smallest bears under threatNative to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, sun bears are the world’s smallest bear species. Sun bears are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Persons: “ Angela, I’m Angela Organizations: CNN, Wildlife Fund, Sun Bear Conservation Center, International Union for Conservation of Nature Locations: China, Hangzhou, Weibo, Henan, Sichuan, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sabah

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