Family raises ‘dog’ for 2 years, then realizes it’s a bear

March 1, 2023

A family in a remote part of China adopted what it thought was a puppy, only to discover two years later that it was actually a bear.

Su Yun, who lives in a village outside the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province, bought what she was led to believe was a Tibetan mastiff puppy while on vacation back in 2016, according to reports.

Tibetan mastiffs are huge dogs with thick black-and-brown coat. Males can weigh as much as 150lbs.

The owner said she was immediately struck by her pooch’s insatiable appetite, which had him wolfing down a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles daily.

Two years on, Su’s pet was tipping the scales at 250 pounds and getting ever bigger. When the woman noticed the animal’s unusual knack for walking on two legs, her bewilderment escalated to an alarm.

An Asiatic bear eats an orange in a cage in May 2018 — A woman in Yunnan Province, China, thought she was buying a Tibetan mastiff puppy, but the animal would not stop growing thanks to its ravenous appetite.

An Asiatic bear rests in a cage after its owner realized after two years that it was not a dog. — This Asiatic bear that had been mistaken for a dog by its owners in China for two years.

The animal's owner said it would eat a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles daily. — The animal’s owner said it would eat a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles daily.

“The more he grew, the more like a bear he looked,” Su told Chinese media.

The owner’s growing suspicion about her pet’s true nature did not sit well with her because she admitted that she is “a little scared of bears.”

Su reached out to the authorities, who quickly identified her supposed dog as an Asiatic black bear, which is classified as a vulnerable species.

The bizarre story was first reported by The Independent back in 2018, but has gone viral again this week.

A fully grown male Asiatic bear, also known as Himalayan bear or moon bear, can weigh up to 400lbs.

Su’s bear, who had lived in her home this entire time, had to be tranquillized before being carted off to the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue because staffers who arrived to collect it were too scared to interact with the wild animal while it was fully alert.

Tibet Mastiff posing against a beautiful winter landscape. — A Tibetan mastiff is a large dog with a thick coat that can weigh up to 150lbs.

Video shot by a Chinese media outlet in May 2018 showed the large bear with a glossy black coat and an unmistakable white mark on its chest, which is the hallmark of the species, gorging on an orange inside a cage.

Officials reported at the time that the bear was living a healthy life in its new home.