The Asiatic black bear typically roams the forests of northern and southern Myanmar, sometimes the mountains of Bago and Rakhine. This week, the endangered species was found near a Chinese cemetery just outside Yangon.
A wild bear so close to the city is “very unusual,” said WWF Myanmar wildlife programme officer Margaret Nyein Nyein Myint.
“It might have been captured from somewhere and ended up in Yangon,” she told Myanmar Mix.
The bear was caught on Monday afternoon when it entered a compound near the cemetery in Thanlyin township, reported 7Day News Daily.
It was found to be female, two or three years old, and about 1.1 metres from head to tail, according to the newspaper. Workers from the Forest Department, Myanmar Timber Enterprise, and Yangon zoo were involved in its capture, as well as local police, firefighters, MPs and residents.
A video posted on Facebook by We Media shows people crowding around the caged animal, seemingly more concerned about catching a glimpse of the bear than the current orders for social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A Forest Department representative told 7Day News Daily the animal would be brought to a small zoo north of Yangon at Hlawga Park before being released into the wild.
Margaret Nyein Nyein Myint said there were no estimates for the population of the Asiatic black bear in Myanmar.
“The major threats to the bear are hunting for skins, paws, and especially gall bladders and habitat loss due to logging and conversion to agriculture, plantations, building roadway networks and dams,” she said.
Also known as the moon bear, they are distinguished by a v-shaped crescent on their chest and a coat of black fur. However, locals who spotted the “black creature” mistook it for a ghost, according to an interview with a resident.
