When a gang of jungle workers in Malaysia spotted what they thought to be an alien crawling through the dense, damp undergrowth, they immediately launched a savage attack against the four-legged beast they thought had come from outer space.
Anthony Sebastian of the Malaysian Nature Society Kuching explained to the Malaysian Star that the sun bear is actually a vulnerable species that has declined by more than 30% in just three generations.
“It is clearly a sun bear, What confuses people is the lack of fur. It is not some strange alien that has fallen from the sky.”
The Mirror reports that the confused employees, who work at a palm oil plantation, first stumbled across the creature as it was climbing through the undergrowth in a desperate search for food.
Rather than take pity on the poor beast’s plight or stop to actually understand what they were seeing, the workers rushed in mob handed and attacked the ‘extraterrestrial’ with sticks. Worker Herman Tutu, 33, explained that they only attacked out of shock and fear of the unknown.
“We were completely shocked as none of us had ever seen such thing. It had very strange shaped claws and when it saw us it came towards us. One of us then hit it with a stick several times until it passed out.”
When the poor bear finally regained consciousness, the workers, somewhat unbelievably decided to film the bewildered and terrified creature as it attempted to flee from the ‘monsters’ who attacked him and make its way back to the safety of the undergrowth.
The unprovoked violence on behalf of the jungle workers has angered conservationists from wildlife group, Naturetalksback. They have fiercely condemned the attack on the sun bear, who had likely lost its fur either from disease or because it was abused/shaved.”
“A local endangered bear gets the living daylights beaten out of it, is filmed, and paraded on the interwebs as a ‘freak of nature’ or a ‘monster’. This is not right.”
What the workers first thought was an alien life-form turned out to be an endangered species, native to earth. No matter the poor creature’s origin, it’s story is a sad testament to how life on this planet is treated.
Let’s just hope if ET ever bumps into that particular gang of jungle workers he doesn’t hold grudges.
