A black bear at a wildlife park in Linyi, East China's Shandong Province, appears motionless with its neck "caught" in a fixture, but zoo staff members said it was safe and was simply "playing dead."

A video recently posted online showed a bear hanging motionless near a fixture at a wildlife park in Linyi, East China's Shandong Province, prompting concerns that it was in danger. After visitors reported the incident, zoo staff members told them the bear was not in danger and frequently behaved this way. Several visitors had previously raised similar concerns, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the video uploader, a woman surnamed Fan, said she was visiting the wildlife park with her family when they arrived at the bear enclosure. She initially saw one bear moving around in the lower activity area. Then, a child nearby pointed out another bear above them, exclaiming that it appeared to "be stuck."

Fan said the bear remained completely still, with its tongue hanging out. Visitors feared it had become trapped and might be in danger, so they searched for the zoo's contact information to report the situation.

When Fan reached a staff member by phone, she was told there was no cause for concern. The bear often "played dead," the staff member said, adding that many visitors had previously reported similar scenes.

Fan stayed at the scene for a while and eventually saw the bear pull its tongue back and blink, confirming that it was alive. Reassured, she left.

A staff member at the wildlife park told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald that the animal in the video was an Asiatic black bear and that the bears frequently rested in that spot, which the staff member described as their "playground."

Asked whether the fixture could injure the animals, the staff member explained that it was a doorway that remained open, allowing the bears to move freely in and out. Closing it would make the bears restless, the staff member said.

The staff member also recalled another incident in which a visitor reported seeing a bear apparently foaming at the mouth. When staff members went to check, they found that the bear was spitting out something it had been holding in its mouth. An examination by the zoo found no health problems.

The two bears in the enclosure are named Tuantuan and Yuanyuan and have been at the park for about three years. The staff member could not confirm which bear appeared in the video, saying the two often took turns playing in that area.

Global Times