Three-Legged Bear Walks Upright

By John Farrier in Animals & Pets, Video Clips on Feb 9, 2010 at 4:05 pm


(YouTube Link)

This video shows a wild bear with three legs. Presumably it was born without a front leg or lost it later in life. The bear gets up on his hind legs and walks like a human. Is it real or fake?

via Urlesque


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  1. SenorMysterioso
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 4:12 pm

    Four-legged bears do it. I see nothing unusual about this. Looks like it found walking upright from time to time easier than overworking one front leg all the time or trying to put weight on the stump

  2. Neal
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    Not hard to believe, but interesting that when the bear starts walking on two legs the video switches from zoom close-up to far away.

  3. Azidrain
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 5:02 pm

    They can do this beacuse they’re plantigrades that means they use the whole surface of their feet to walk. In fact “normal” bears do this with no problems, especially when they feel to be in danger in order to appear bigger (!) than they are.

  4. blitz
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    IT’S BIGFOOT

  5. AlisonCJ
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    Blitz, I actually wonder if that’s true – it’s a very human-like gait at first glance.. big, tall, hairy and bi-pedal.. interesting.

  6. Kitanne
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    I’d certainly go for the video being real. Black bears are wonders of ingenuity and do walk upright in the wild even with all four legs.

    I’m just surprised that it appears to be a mother bear! A cub that young wouldn’t likely be around any adult bear other than it’s mother. Go Mama Bear! She must be a really good mom. I bet standing up helps her look bigger and scan the area for danger/her errant cub more easily.

  7. Kalel
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 6:59 pm

    How confusing for the poor cub, when someday it will ask it’s mother, “Where did paw go?”

  8. Minnesotastan
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    I love this video because the audio portion reminds me so much of Minnesota.

  9. Jessss
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    Looks pretty real to me. As mentioned before, perhaps we have a bigfoot explanation.

  10. Zavatone
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 8:24 pm

    I, for one, support our new ursine overlords.

  11. Zavatone
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    Regarding bigfoot claims, looking at the footprints would show bear claw marks, which primates do not have.

  12. Rocky
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

    Not fake. I used to work in Northern Alberta and I saw a bear just like this with her leg missing and a few cubs in tow. She certainly got up on her hind legs to clear a pipe laid alongside the road I was driving on.

    Most likely got it stuck in a trap and lost it that way.

  13. Kathy
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    A person in a bear suit. The part with a bear on 3 paws is real.

  14. Alex
    Feb 9th, 2010 at 10:07 pm

    “No one’s watching. Time to walk normal”

    BTW, those must be GIGANTIC mosquitoes to have sounded like that.

  15. Joe
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 1:33 am

    Kathy, darling, I don’t think that you’re particularly bright.

  16. D.D.
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 6:38 am

    Smarter than the average bear. Come on Boo boo, let’s go get that pik a nik basket.

  17. Buttons
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 6:46 am

    I wondered what happened to Smokey after he finished his career warning of bush fire danger… He looked much more authoritarian with the Rangers hat.

  18. AaronA1C
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 8:19 am

    That’s totally a skunk ape, not a 3 legged bear. And everyone knows that when Smokey the Bear retired, they put robot guts inside him and put him in a museum in Washington DC.

  19. DEBBI
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 9:26 am

    this bear paw was stuck in a trap and probally had to chew it off,traps should be illegal and is toatally disgusting………………

  20. Zaulankris
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    @Joe

    I lol’ed.

    And yes, looks legit. The knees are bending too low for it to be a person in a costume.

  21. DarkPassenger29
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    My money is on 2 midgets in a gorilla suit… And that buzzing sound… Monthra is flying overhead.

  22. emmakate
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    “Presumably it was born without a front leg or lost it later in life.”

    Sadly, it looks like he lost his foot in a bear trap, not in the womb.

  23. gloria fitch
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 7:12 pm

    i am from canada. i have see so many black bears, i also have taken hundreds of pics. of them. some are very up close to them. i see no reason tht this is fake.rocky they don,t have a few cubs following them. i think at most they have two at a time. i might be wrong but i don,t think so. if anyone would like to see my pics. let me know.

  24. Rocky
    Feb 10th, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    I was actually referring to my own anecdote, Gloria.

  25. jody
    Feb 11th, 2010 at 8:38 am

    This bear is a victim of a cruel, inhumane bear trap- she had to chew off her leg and paw to save her own life- that shows intelligence. To know that it would be easier for her to walk upright to get the weight off her chest and other leg again shows remarkable intelligence, not to mention agility.

    This is not a joking matter, this is a criminal act against bears. I wonder what it must be like to walk in your own private land (which the wilderness belongs to the animals) and have a cruel, painful trap hold you captive and the decision you have to make is this extreme.

    This bear should be applauded for her ingenuity and courage, even though it is instinctive. I doubt the majority of people in this world would be able to make this decision.

    The point of this whole topic is to stop inhumane animal trapping, not to ridicule this specific bear.

  26. killerbug
    Feb 11th, 2010 at 9:44 am

    Obviously this is how the legend of Sasquatch got started.

  27. Kate
    Feb 14th, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    Jody “This bear should be applauded for her ingenuity and courage, even though it is instinctive.”

    Don’t clap at the bear, I think that’d scare it.

    I think a quiet “huzzar” might be better.

  28. JamesC
    Feb 15th, 2010 at 2:49 pm

    It is not common for bears to walk in bipedal mode
    like this bear does in this video.
    This one has obviously learned to do this.
    Bears getting up to sniff and to get a better look around, or to stand up to face off with other bears is one thing…
    But to walk around like this bear is not advantageous for a animal designed to walk on four legs.
    Bears are capable of this for sure. Just look at trained walking bears, or in this case a bear that has learned to do this. This one probably lost the leg in a bear leg hold trap. Maybe at one point its leg was in so much pain before it lost the limb(for whatever reason)it learned that getting up to walk was advantageous. But it looks like it only does this on certain surfaces and for brief periods of time.

  29. Alaska Joe
    Feb 25th, 2010 at 12:31 am

    Its more likely that the bear was caught in a wolf or lynx snare. A bear snare would most times cinch down just above the foot, although infection could have caused the area above the snare to become necrotic and fall off. Having watched bears moving on their hind legs more than several dozen times, this bear is remarkably fluid in its walking motion. The typical bear gait when using only its hind legs is an awkward, plodding motion. This bear’s skill could potentially come from practicing, although there are likely muscular and skeletal contraints to a bear walking so fluidly. Who knows except for the videographer? It won’t surprise me at all to discover it is a hoax. It would not shock me to find out its true, either.


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