Internet In Disbelief After Man Gives Lollipop To Giant Bear

For most people, coming across a large bear would trigger a flight or freeze response, but for Anton Kharcenko, this is not the case. The Russian man would simply play with his tame brown bear. Now, a video posted by Anton Kharcenko is stacking up likes. The video shows him giving a massive lollipop to his large brown bear as if the bear is a cuddly pet and not a wild animal. After taking the lollipop from Anton the bear, named Tom, sits calms and relishes the treat. This video has gathered over six lakh likes since it was posted on March 3.

In the comments, many people expressed awe at the bear’s calm interaction with Anton. Commenting on it, an Instagram user wrote, “Russians can pet anything.” Another person wrote, “Tell me your russian with out telling me your russian.” Someone else wrote, “The processed sugar in that lollypop is not good for his or her teeth. Better treat him/her with a nice honeycomb.” An Instagram user sarcastically commented, “So next time there’s a potential bear attack, just give him a lollipop and he’ll leave you alone. Got it.”

In Russia, many people are known to have tamed wild bears. The most popular case can be traced to 1993 when Yury and Svetlana Panteleyenko adopted a bear cub from a small St. Petersburg circus after the circus was no longer able to take care of its bears. The couple nursed the malnourished bear to health and it became part of the family. The massive brown bear, named Stepan got worldwide popularity as it appeared in films by Russian directors like Pavel Lungin and Alexei Uchitel and also worked on commercial photoshoots.

However, despite these ‘success’ stories, experts believe that wild animals like bears should not be domesticated for several reasons. Firstly, bears need a lot of food, at least 30 pounds (approximately 14 kilograms) of an omnivore diet per day. They grow rapidly and are massive in size. Bears are also temperamental and can turn aggressive quickly.

Back in 2018, Sergey Grigoriyev, a professional hunter who rescued the orphaned bear cub in 2014 and adopted it, was killed by the same brown bear. Similarly, environmentalist and bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell, who spent over a decade studying bears and living closely by them at the Katmai National Park and Preserve in the United States, was killed by bears on October 3, 2003.