Family Raises 250-Pound Animal For 2 Years Thinking It's A Dog, But It Turns Out To Be A Bear

A family in rural China adopted a dog they believed was a puppy but discovered two years later that it was a bear.

Su Yun, who lives outside of Kunming in Yunnan Province, is said to have bought a puppy on vacation in 2016 that she was told was a Tibetan mastiff.

A Tibetan mastiff is a large dog with a thick coat that is a mixture of black and brown. Males have an upper weight limit of 150 pounds.

The owner was initially shocked by her dog's ravenous hunger, resulting in him devouring a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles daily.

After just two years, Su's pet weighed in at a whopping 250 pounds and was still expanding.

The woman's confusion turned to fear as she saw the animal's unusual ability to walk on two legs.

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

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As someone "a little scared of bears," the owner's growing suspicions about her pet's true nature didn't sit well with her.

Su called the police, and they confirmed that Su's "dog" was a rare and threatened Asiatic black bear.

The Independent first featured the strange tale in 2018, but it has gained new prominence.

It is estimated that a mature male Asiatic bear, sometimes called a Himalayan or moon bear, may weigh up to 400 pounds.

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Workers who came to Su's house to get her bear had too much fear of the wild animal getting close to it while it was awake, so they had to put it to sleep before taking it to the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue.

A video shot by a Chinese news organization in May 2018 shows a massive bear with a shiny black coat and a prominent white spot on its chest that is the signature of the species as it gorges itself on an orange within a cage.

At the time, authorities said the bear flourished in its new environment.

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