When my fiancé first asked me to research “hairless bears,” I was a little perplexed. In fact, at first, I tried Urban Dictionary, thinking perhaps it was a dirty term and that my man was trying to give me a good chuckle.

When I found nothing, I asked a few of my students if they were familiar with the term, wondering if it were some young person pop culture reference that I was not yet familiar with.

I mean, I consider myself as a secondary teacher to be pretty hip and with it, but you never know. I did, at what point, have to ask what was so funny about a t-shirt with the picture of an old woman and the word “TURNT” under the photo.

As my students were quietly working on some research this week, I searched for “hairless bear.” The first image that popped up made me recoil in horror and disgust. It was a fierce and deranged looking creature with a leathery body on all fours and a gruff, coarsely bearded face.

The animal looked as if it were a vengeful creature out of a Steven King or R.L. Stine novel. Anyone unfortunate enough to encounter this terrifying creature in the wild would be shaken by the sight of it. Surely I would be having nightmares about being chased by this animal.

What the Native Americans believe

It turns out that the legend of the hairless bear has a deep history, particular with native tribes in North and South America. In many Native American tribes in the northern and western regions of the United States, there is lore of a “stiff-legged bear” that is believed to have come from the unearthing ancient remains of animals like the wooly mammoth or sabre tooth tiger.

Although the name of the mythical creature varies from tribe to tribe, the stories spun include details of how the man-eating creature roams through the forests and stalks his prey at night. In South America, there are similar tales of a creature called “chupacabra” who lives deep in the rainforest. However the description of this monster varies between a reptilian creature and a canine beast, the theme of a terrorizing man-eater remains common.

What I think, thanks Hollywood

My mind went to the plot of the movie “The Village” by M. Night Shamaylan. Was this a scary bedtime story that parents made up to tell their children, in order to prevent kids from wandering off on their own at night? Did youngsters sit around campfires and tell tales of the fierce and terrifying creature to try and make younger siblings cry?

I can only imagine young indigenous boys and girls trying to pull a prank on their friends by pretending to be a hairless bear…

So do these creatures actually exist?

Well, it seems like there is some debate. In my research, I came across Delores, a sun bear who lives in a zoo in Leipzig, Germany. Sun bears originate in South America and are usually covered with dark fur, except for their white face. However, for reasons zoo staff cannot explain, Delores has lost almost all of her fur.

She now looks like a terrifying combination of a werewolf and a small elephant, with long claws and a fierce face. It would be easy to see how a tribe of indigenous people in the Amazon would be frightened upon encountering an animal such as Delores in the midst of a dark forest.

But poor Delores! What an unfortunate creature to end up in a condition where you are left that ugly and deformed, people mistake you for a mythical creature of lore! I can’t help but wonder if Delores is even aware of how different she is, the poor girl!

Do other animals recoil from her because of her appearance? She is like the Elephant Man of jungle creatures, a sideshow freak of the wild kingdom.