A video of an Asian black bear seemingly practising Kung Fu moves with a stick has become a big hit on the internet.
The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube a few days ago, shows the bear first playing with the 5ft stick with a paw.
The bear then appears to start twirling the stick rapidly around its head, reports the Daily Telegraph.
At one point the bear - said to be named Cloud - even throws the spinning stick above its head and then catches it again.
The unedited version of the film plus a previous edited version have so far clocked up more than 1.2m hits.
The three-minute clip of the bear was filmed by Canadian YouTube user alexbuzzkentaroguy at the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima, Japan.
Animal behaviour expert Professor Marc Bekoff from the University of Colorado said the footage appeared to be genuine.
He said: "This is an amazing example of animal object control. This goes beyond normal animal usage of complex tools but then again you can train seals to balance balls on their noses and train elephants to paint with their trunks, so why not this.
"I would guess this is the result of extreme training and would find it hard to believe the animal taught itself this spontaneously."
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_~~~bvU"]YouTube - Kung Fu Bear- Unedited Footage(NOT FAKE!)-ORIGINAL[/ame]
The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube a few days ago, shows the bear first playing with the 5ft stick with a paw.
The bear then appears to start twirling the stick rapidly around its head, reports the Daily Telegraph.
At one point the bear - said to be named Cloud - even throws the spinning stick above its head and then catches it again.
The unedited version of the film plus a previous edited version have so far clocked up more than 1.2m hits.
The three-minute clip of the bear was filmed by Canadian YouTube user alexbuzzkentaroguy at the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima, Japan.
Animal behaviour expert Professor Marc Bekoff from the University of Colorado said the footage appeared to be genuine.
He said: "This is an amazing example of animal object control. This goes beyond normal animal usage of complex tools but then again you can train seals to balance balls on their noses and train elephants to paint with their trunks, so why not this.
"I would guess this is the result of extreme training and would find it hard to believe the animal taught itself this spontaneously."
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_~~~bvU"]YouTube - Kung Fu Bear- Unedited Footage(NOT FAKE!)-ORIGINAL[/ame]
