Apparently the old saying “monkey see, money do” applies to bears as well. In the odd news category, we have a story about a walking bear — that is, a non-domesticated bear walking upright on his two back legs just like a human. Moreover, several residents of Oak Ridge, New Jersey have provided conclusive video proof of the bipedal ursine cohabiting with the humans in the Cozy Lake road area of the community.
Experts say bears are typically quadrupedal, but they are also very agile climbers and seeing a bear standing or even walking a couple of steps on his hind legs is not that unusual. It is unusual, however, to see a bear that seems to be so comfortable walking on two legs.
Caught on video camera
Ian Bohman, who lives in Oak Ridge, spotted the walking bear when he was leaving home at around 5:45 AM ET on Monday. Amazed at the balance of the bipedal animal, he quickly pulled out his smartphone to record the unusual sight.
The upright, walking bear appears to be wandering aimlessly in the video, crossing the road, checking out a garbage can, then heading off into the woods.
Bohman uploaded the one-minute-38-second clip of the walking bear on YouTube a short time later, and it became a viral hit within hours. Bohman has commented he believes that an injury may be forcing the animal to walk upright.
Other sightings of upright bear in Oakridge
A number of people living in the Oakridge area said they’ve seen the same upright bear out and about walking on two legs on other occasions. Comments on Bohman’s YouTube video posting of the bipedal bear include:
“We saw him last night (8/4/2014) on Cozy Lake road about 8:30pm.”
“I’ve got some video but it’s not nearly as good as this.”
“I saw him about two weeks ago couldn’t stop laughing it looks so funny walking.”
Here’s one more video uploaded by a Facebook user:
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