27 February 2023 , 14:51
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A family were shocked to discover the animal they had been raising for two years was not a pet dog, but an endangered bear.
The family believed it was a Tibetan mastiff the entire time, but became suspicious when it kept growing - eventually weighing over 250 pounds and it even began walking on its hind legs.
A woman named Su Yun brought the animal to her home in Yunnan, a Chinese village, while on vacation in 2016.
She was surprised by how much the dog ate. “A box of fruits and two buckets of noodles every day,” she told Chinese media.
The woman discovered her pet dog was actually a bear (Getty Images)“The more he grew, the more like a bear he looked,” said Ms Yun, a villager living near the city of Kunming in Yunnan province.
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It turns out the owner is even scared of bears.
The animal is now in the safe hands of the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Centre after the family got in touch requesting help.
Footage taken by officials shows it standing about a metre tall.
Staff were so intimidated by the animal that they sedated it before transportation.
It has been identified as an endangered Asiatic Black Bear, which would fetch thousands of pounds if sold on the black market, despite the family being sold it as a Tibetan Mastiff.
A few months earlier, a man from the same province raised a bear after finding it in the forest believing it to be a stray dog.
And another woman from China was shocked to discover her pet Japanese Spitz dog was actually a domesticated fox.
The woman, identified as Ms Wang by Chinese media, thought she bought a puppy from a pet shop.
She raised the small animal for months and noticed strange behaviour, such as it never barking and sometimes refusing to eat dog food.
The woman thought she was caring for a Tibetan mastiff (Getty Images/iStockphoto)"The fur got thicker when it reached three months old. Its face became pointy and its tail grew longer than that of a normal dog,” she told a Chinese media outlet.
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"Other pet dogs seemed to be scared by my pet so I walked it with a leash,” she added.
Sun Letian, an expert in animal epidemic prevention at Taiyuan Zoo, confirmed Ms Wang's pet is a fox after she brought her pet in for advice.
He said: "Based on the size, it is a domesticated fox. It carries a smell in their body and the smell can get stronger as it grows older."
Ms Wang said she decided to give her pet to the zoo so it could g a et more suitable diet and "better living environment."