Chinese Family Raises 'Dog' For 2 Years Only To Discovers It's An Endangered Bear Species

The owner after bringing the animal home was a bit alarmed at its appetite, which had him gulping down a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles daily.

In a bizarre incident, a family in China adopted a puppy and raised it for two years, only to discover it was actually a bear. Su Yun, a resident of 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 the New York Post.

The owner after bringing the animal home was a bit alarmed at its appetite, which had him gulping down a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles daily. Two years later the pet weighed 250 pounds and was getting ever bigger. Su also noticed the animal’s unusual knack for walking on two legs that finally raised an alarm.

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

As Su Yun grew more suspicious about her pet, she approached the authorities, who quickly identified her supposed dog as an Asiatic black bear, which is classified as a vulnerable species, reported the New York Post.

Tibetan mastiffs are huge dogs with thick black-and-brown coat and resemble Asiatic black bear to some extent. Males can weigh as much as 150 pounds, which is approximately 69 kg.

After the rescue team reached Su's home, they tranquillized the bear and carted it off to the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue as the staff was scared to interact with the wild animal.

A fully grown male Asiatic bear, also known as a Himalayan bear or moon bear, can weigh up to 400 pounds. This story was first reported by the Independent in 2018 but went viral again this week.