A mum has been left shocked after discovering the 'puppy' she welcomed into her home was actually a black bear.
Su Yun and her family spent two years living alongside a bear before learning the truth - and only began to question things when the animal started walking on its hind legs.
Speaking to the Chinese media, Su explained how she bought the animal while on holiday thinking it was a Tibetan mastiff.
She said: "A box of fruits and two buckets of noodles every day. The more he grew, the more like a bear he looked. I am a little scared of bears."
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Suspecting something wasn't quite right, Su, who lives in a village near Kunming in the Yunnan province, contacted an animal rescue team for a second opinion.
The team identified the animal as an endangered Asiatic black bear, also known as a moon bear or white-chested bear.
They took the 250lb animal to Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Centre, where it has been learning how to fend for itself and live amongst its own kind.
Selling for thousands on the black market, Asiatic black bears have been used in Asian traditional medicine and cuisine for years.
A chemical found in the bear’s bile is used to treat a range of ailments such as liver disease in Chinese traditional medicine.
Despite the practise being barbaric, bear bile farming remains legal in China. It involves keeping bears in inhumane conditions and painfully extracting their bile while they're still alive.
It comes after a woman rescued a 'homeless dog' who was injured in a hit and run only to discover it was actually a wild coyote.
Andrea Athie was driving in Cuidad Victoria, Mexico, when the car in front of her hit an animal and drove off without stopping to check on it.
Wanting to help, Andrea stopped her car, got out and tried to calm the animal, which she thought was a stray dog based on its appearance.
It was after she arrived at the vets when Andrea discovered she had actually been cuddling up with a wild coyote - and not a malnourished dog.
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