@@ The villagers “attacked” this beast, thinking that it was…

 Today I will tell you a story that has spread all over the world and shocked many people. The incident happened in Indonesia when the residents came across some creature that they had certainly never seen before. People behaved like savages. They took the creature that looked extraterrestrial for an actual alien, after which they dealt with it with extreme cruelty.

However, as it turned out later, the truth was very sad. The incident took place in the forest of Indonesia several years ago. When residents of a local village were strolling around the area, they saw a strange creature near the settlement. It didn’t look like a person or an animal. It was hiding in the thickets of the forest.

They got very frightened, mistaking the unidentified creature for an alien from another planet, and couldn’t think of anything better than to beat it with sticks. When they finally defeated the strange creature, people were able to capture the terrible monster. Once in the cage, the animal began to roar and tried to gnaw through the iron bars. Looking at the behavior of this creature, the locals were horrified and immediately called the reporters. They were hoping to get rich by capturing a creature previously unknown to science.

However, I think you already guessed that nothing sensational happened. The animal rights activists came to the strange call with the journalists. The villagers then heard many angry words directed at them and had to apologize for their behavior. It turned out that the unfortunate hunters did not catch some creature previously unknown to science or an extraterrestrial being, but rather a weak and sick Malayan bear. After the incident, the prisoner had to be urgently taken for rehabilitation and jumping ahead.

I’d like to say that it took the volunteers several weeks to gain the animal’s trust after the brutal attack on it, and it was a very difficult process. They gave it treats and tried to show in every possible way that it was safe. Now, after being examined by a vet, it turned out that the bear was seriously ill. The residents got so scared of the Malayan bear, not because they hadn’t seen this kind of animal before, but because it barely looked like the representatives of its species. It had virtually no hair and moved weirdly.

The creature was very thin and its claws were protruding scarily. The test results showed that its hair loss was caused by a skin infection, mite, infestation, and mild anemia. Sure, the volunteers faced a difficult task, and having shown compassion, they did their best to help the animal. After starting the treatment plan, the poor thing began to recover in just a matter of days. The vets noted a positive trend, saying that if the recovery process continued this way, the animal would be able to return to the wild shortly, and most importantly, it wouldn’t be in danger there.

It took a long time for the bear to return to its usual appearance. After which the vets examined the animal again and made sure it was healthy. The bear was released into its natural habitat. Realizing that it was finally free, the poor fellow ran as fast as it could. Fortunately, the story of this particular bear ended well.

But sadly, the Malayan bears, even the healthy ones, are currently not all that well known to people. Moreover, they are considered one of the rarest bears in the wild and they also are the smallest representatives of the bear family. Adult bears do not grow bigger than one 5 meters in length and they do not weigh over 65 kg. The population of this species is rapidly decreasing because of hunting. The local population believes that the liver and bile of the Malayan bear have healing powers for all the diseases in the world.

Unfortunately, their size and inability to protect themselves from the two-legged representatives of civilization make them very vulnerable. Today, the possibility of coming across this bear in the wild is virtually zero. The Malayan, or sun bears have been long-listed in the red book. And if the bears see people, they try to hide from them in the thickets of the forest. But as you can see, this doesn’t always save them from people.

And Besides, there are also those cases where people keep these animals in captivity on special farms for the extraction of their bile. And especially brave ones even keep them as pets. Unfortunately, people are always aggressive towards what they cannot explain. And that is exactly what happened in this story. It’s great that there are organizations that help wild animals and let’s hope that thanks to their efforts, we’ll be able to preserve the population of the animals listed in the Redbook.