No, this isn't Alan dressed up in a bear suit. This moon bear was performing in the hopes of getting a coconut apparently. These bears are also known as 'dancing bears' so he was possibly just doing what he was trained to do. Moon bears are under threat due to deforestation, but also because they are in demand for some other horrific reasons by people from Vietnam, China and India in particular. Fur is obvious; paws are used for soup, gall bladders and bile is collected for making traditional medicines. Horrible stuff!
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Moon bears are not known as dancing bears. Dancing bears are mostly sloth bears, but also brown bears and moon bears and this would certainly not be a dancing bear although he or she is kept in appalling conditions by the looks of it. So called dancing bears have a hole drilled through the roof of their mouths or their nose pierce with a hot poker and then have a permanent chain or rope inserted. They are trained to "dance" from when they are cubs. They are made to walk on a hot plate to the music they will later hear when told to dance. They "dance" because the hot plate burns their feet. Later they do it for fear of the burning plate. This is unbelievable cruelty that should under no circumstances be promoted or tolerated by the tourist industry. Please make your clients aware and don't contribute to this horrific abuse of these highly intelligent bears. Thank you
Hi - I accept I may have got my bears mixed up when referring to this one as a dancing bear. But please be assured that I was NOT enjoying or otherwise endorsing the use of bears as entertainment or otherwise! Not sure if you read the accompanying travel blog, but this bear was actually a rescued bear living at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Sanctuary that we visited - a place that houses bears (and other animals) from traffickers and other horrible situations.
The FreeThe Bears rescue organisation work out of Phnom Tamao and are doing some awesome work. More info is here: http://www.freethebears.org.au/web/Projects/Cambodia/
Pls read the blog entry to get the whole context in which this photo was taken. I was in Cambodia as a traveller; I don't have "client's" I don't appreciate assumptions made based on one photo that was taken out of context. We visited and supported a well-respected rescue sanctuary that is doing some good; we were NOT supporting horrific animal abuse.