This video of a bear riding a motorcycle in afternoon traffic is going viral, and we have questions

Want to watch something delightfully weird? A video was posted on YouTube of a bear riding in a motorcycle sidecar. But that’s not it — later on, he’s seen playing a horn. Huh.

The video was shot in Russia, and it’s simply bizarre and thought-provoking. While we feel like we’d run and hide if we came into such close proximity with a bear (since while they’re cute, they’re also dangerous) the person shooting the video seemed to act casually delighted about the encounter, enjoying the entertainment while seemingly forgetting that a live bear was literally right next to him.

Called “Bear in Russian traffic,” the video was uploaded by Niks Ļeoņenko yesterday. It already has over 100,000 views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlxdnyfkWKQ?feature=oembed

Of course, there’s one big thing we need to point out here — the bear seemed totally docile for a reason.

If it’s cool with naturally sitting in a motorcycle sidecar, it’s had a lot of training. The treatment of bears for entertainment purposes has been an animal rights issue for quite some time — and typically, any behavior that is unnatural for the animal in the wild can be seen as abusive.

While it’s amusing since it’s like nothing we’ve seen before, there’s a good reason why we’ve never seen it — because bears don’t belong in environments like this.

This video brings up a lot of questions and mixed feelings. We just hope that the talented bear gets transported to a habitat that’s much more natural to him than the busy streets in Russia, for everyone’s sake.