Polar bear throws rock at aquarium glass and damages it in front of terrified visitors
Topics: Animals, Social Media, Viral, World News
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: Reddit
Topics: Animals, Social Media, Viral, World News
A Polar bear threw a stone at the glass of its zoo container and social media users are weighing in.
If you're the sort of person who goes to the zoo and you went to visit a polar bear enclosure, only to end up standing opposite a bear who decided to pick up a rock and throw it at the only thing separating you from them - and that thing was made of glass - you'd probably be slightly freaked out.
And unfortunately for some visitors - and the bear - at Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands this situation ended up becoming a reality.
The incident is reported as having taken place in 2012 and was caught on camera. Take a look:
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The video shared to multiple social media sites over the years shows two figures standing in front of the enclosure as the bear swam around in the tank.
Suddenly, the video shows the moment the bear emerges on the left hand side, holding a large rock in its paws, before dropping the rock as it swims past the humans it hitting the glass pane of the enclosure.
The figures give it a bit of a glance but then carry on chatting. The bear can be seen swimming back down, before up he comes again with the stone in paw dropping it from a greater height this time and spooking the visitors - a crack has been formed! Bear 1 - humans 0.
Unfortunately, your visions of scenes similar to those from the 2005 release Madagascar don't quite come true - and would certainly come with the risk of much more grave consequences than a bunch of human-friendly all-singing and dancing animals on the loose.
The HuffPost reported that the pane of glass didn't shatter and the bear was relocated to a different pen and the pane ultimately repaired.
The bear is reportedly called Vicks and was adopted by the zoo when he was born to another bear called Olinka, the zoo saying at the time he was 'playing' with the stones - opposed to trying to break free, I guess.
And it's not taken long for people to weigh in on the clip.
One YouTube user said: "This is literally my biggest fear about rooms like this..."
"I remember reading somewhere that there is 2-3 layers of glass. So the bear would have to do that another couple of times to actually get out. Still, it's kind of alarming," another added.
A third wrote: "Prison Break, Season 5: Episode 1."
And a fourth resolved: "i would too, if i were in a cage."