The footage shows the Chinese man pointing an assault rifle at the caged Asian black bear before killing it with a single shot to the head
A tourist kills an endangered bear with a machine gun “out of curiosity” in this shocking footage.
The footage shows the Chinese man pointing an assault rifle at the caged Asian black bear before killing it with a single shot to the head.
The video, initially believed to have been filmed in China, has since been reported as having occurred within the borders of the country’s southern neighbour Myanmar.
The clip also showed a bear after being skinned and chopped into pieces later by an unknown person.
The tourist has claimed in an interview that the bear was captured and caged by local authorities in the Wa Special Region 2 in Myanmar’s northern Shan State.
They gave him permission, and the firearm, to put it down, he explained.
The man was quoted by local media as saying: “The bear had injured people and was caught. We were passing by and were curious.
“They gave us permission to shoot it.”
The footage caught the attention of forestry officials in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in China’s south-western Yunnan Province, who began investigating the incident as a possible poaching case.
A forestry official surnamed Jing said: “According to our investigations, the individual is from Shandong [Province] and the video was filmed while he was in Myanmar.”
This detail means the man is unlikely to be punished for killing an animal which belongs to a second-class state-protected species in China, and which is classified as “Vulnerable” in the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species.
However, the authorities said they still believe the man belongs to an illegal hunting organisation, which may explain why the video also showed the animal being dismembered.
The police are continuing to look into the case and have promised to announce their results.
The tourist in the meantime has asked for his “name to be cleared” and for social media users to stop harassing him.
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