A rare bipedal black bear with a birth defect that left it without forelegs was captured on camera waddling through the woods of southwest West Virginia last week. The unique bear was spotted by hunter Kirk Price, who has trail cams set up in the Appalachian Mountains area. The elusive creature is believed to live within a 5-mile radius and moves around quite frequently.
Price’s most recent sighting of the bear showcases it walking on its hind legs while deftly foraging through leaves on the forest floor. During an in-person encounter in 2022, Price observed that the bear had “clean nubs” instead of forelegs, which led him to believe that the bear was born this way and not injured in any violent incident.
The hunter first spotted the bipedal bear in 2018 when it was smaller and has almost doubled in size since then. Price estimates the bear is now about eight years old and has been walking on its hind legs since it was a young cub, as opposed to staying with its mother until close to two years old like most bears.
This isn’t the first time a bipedal bear has been spotted in the woods; in 2014, hikers in New Jersey began sharing photos and videos of another bi-pedal bear known as “Pedals.” Unlike the West Virginia bear, Pedals was unable to walk on all fours due to a permanently injured front left paw and a missing front right paw. Pedals became beloved by the people of New Jersey but was apparently shot by a hunter in 2016 who appeared to have purposely sought it out.
Kirk Price is an avid hunter himself, but he believes strongly in conservation and would never intentionally hunt this unique bear. He emphasizes that the focus should be on the bear’s ability to overcome its disability and adapt to walking on two hind legs rather than dwelling on its differences.
