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Video shows how Gummy Bears are made in reverse

You’ll never look at a gummy bear the same way again.

Photo by Amit Lahav on Unsplash

Ever wonder how these adorable treats are made?

The first gummy bears were created in the 1920s by Hans Riegel, owner of the Haribo candy company in Bonn, Germany. Since then, the somewhat controversial candies have become popular worldwide and evolved to take the shapes of fish, kids, frogs, worms, and just about anything a clever candy maker can imagine.

But unlike the popular Disney '80s Gummi Bears cartoon, these sweet little guys don't come from a hollow tree in the forest. Sadly, their creation is a bit more terrifying.

In the video below, Belgian filmmaker Alina Kneepkens shows how the colorful snacks you bought at the movie theater actually began as pigskin. Yes, an NFL football and a gummy bear have the same humble beginnings. But if you're a vegan or vegetarian, there's no need to worry; there are candy manufacturers that make gummy bears out of agar and pectin so you can enjoy these fruity delights minus the swine skin.

After watching this you know you want to sing along to the iconic tune.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Joy

People are hilariously debating how pandas survive in the wild

Buitengebieden/Twitter, @ArtMcFall/Twitter

No longer an endangered species, pandas seem to thrive on being goofy.

Pandas aren't real. They can't be. There's no way this big, bumbly black-and-white bear that somersaults down hills and noshes on bamboo all day long actually exists.

Have you ever seen any other animal on Earth that looks remotely like a panda? No, you haven't. Why? Because they're not real. No animal could be that adorable and hilarious and stuffed-animal-like in real life.

I kid, of course. Kind of. Pandas are just the cutest goofballs in nature. They barely look real when you just see them in still shots, but when you see them in action, it's just silly shenanigan after silly shenanigan.

I mean, look at this:

And this:

And yet again:

Seriously, how do these creatures survive in the wild?

There are some hilarious theories. Twitter user "Art McFall" shares the idea that they simply aren't real. "They're actors in suits, originally created as a prank for a World's Fair in 1908," they wrote. "It's got out of hand and now the Chinese government run a school where 1,000 panda artists train and are then sent around the world as covert animal ambassadors for China."

Okay, but if you go back and watch those videos again picturing people in panda suits, it doesn't seem too far-fetched.

Some shared a theory that they're basically stoned all the time—that the bamboo they eat has some kind of effect on their energy. (Pandas are mostly vegetarian, with almost all of their diet coming from bamboo. It doesn't give them food poisoning as is posited below, and in fact digests almost like meat for them. But it does take a really long time to eat enough of it to sustain their huge bods, so they spend a lot of time sitting around looking like they've got the munchies.)

More fun panda facts:

Did you know that pandas will sometimes climb trees backwards, hind feet first, until they're in a full handstand so they can whizz higher up on the tree to mark their scent? Yup. (They also poo up to 40 times a day. So no, you really don't want a pet panda. Sorry.)

Scientists aren't totally sure why they're black-and-white. Could be camouflage, especially in the snowy areas of China where they live, but they don't really have a need for camo since they have very few natural predators.

(Take note, humans: If we could maybe stop killing each other for two seconds, we too could live a silly life full of carefree fun like pandas do.)

This description was my favorite, though:

"Dis iz a bear. She lives on da mountains, this is how they have evolved to travel. They are floooooof and they are sof and warms. They have no dangers but humans. They are peace and love and bamboo. Save da bears."

Floooooof!

"If a bear starts rolling fast enough it can orbit the earth." Sounds right to me.

But pandas will never roll that fast. Case in point:

So yeah, pandas are real. And if you want to know the answer to the original question, they survive in the wild by being not nearly as playful as they are in captivity. Thankfully, giant pandas are no longer listed as endangered thanks to conservation efforts in China and around the globe. Let's keep up that energy so we can keep these marvelous creatures thriving both in the wild and in captivity when they can't be released.

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National Park Service shares helpful—and hilarious—advice for how to handle a bear encounter

National Park Service/Facebook

People often think of government bureaucrats as being boring stuffed shirts, but whoever runs social media at the National Park Service is proving that at least some of them have a sense of humor.

In a Facebook post, the NPS shared some seasonal advice for park-goers about what to do if they happen to encounter a bear, and it's both helpful and hilarious. Not that a confrontation with a bear in real life is a laughing matter—bears can be dangerous—but humor is a good way to get people to pay attention to important advice.

They wrote:

"If a bear clacks its teeth, sticks out its lips, huffs, woofs, or slaps the ground with its paws, it is warning you that you are too close and are making it nervous. The bear's nervous? Heed this warning and slowly back away. ⁣What else should you do or not do if you come across a bear in Yellowstone?

⁣🐻 Do not immediately drop to the ground and "play dead." Bears can sense overacting.⁣⁣

🐻 Do not run, shout, or make sudden movements. ⁣⁣

🐻 Do not run up and push the bear and do not push a slower friend down…even if you feel the friendship has run its course.⁣⁣

🐻 Running may trigger a chase response in the bear and you can't outrun a bear. Bears in Yellowstone chase down elk calves all the time. You do not want to look like a slow elk calf. (Apologies to the elk calf.)⁣⁣

🐻 Slowly putting distance between yourself and the bear may defuse the situation. ⁣⁣

🐻 Draw your bear spray from the holster, remove the safety tab, and prepare to use it if the bear charges.⁣⁣

🐻 In most cases, climbing a tree is a poor decision. Bears can climb trees (especially if there is something up the tree that the bear wants). Also, when was the last time you climbed a tree?⁣⁣

🐻 Running to a tree or frantically climbing a tree may provoke a bear to chase you. If the friend you pushed down somehow made it up a tree and is now extending you a hand, there's a good chance you're not getting up that tree. Karma's a bear."

HA.

They also shared this link to more bear safety tips on the NPS website.

Well done, random National Park Service employee. Thank you for entertaining us while educating the public about wildlife safety at the same time.

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17-year-old runs up and shoves mama bear off a wall in her backyard to protect her dogs

@bakedlikepie/TikTok

Now here's something you don't see every day.

On Memorial Day, security footage caught an incredible encounter between a mama bear with her two cubs and a human mama bear with her four dogs. Don't try this at home, kids.

Surveillance video shows Hailey Morinico, 17, intervening when a brown bear began swatting at the family's four dogs from atop a brick wall in the yard of their Bradbury, California home.

Woman Pushes Bear Off Ledge to Save Her Dogswww.youtube.com

The video, which was shared on TikTok by Hailey's cousin (@bakedlikepie) with music for effect, has been viewed more than 47 million times on TikTok alone, in addition to going viral on Twitter.

@bakedlikepie

My cousin Hailey yeeted a bear off her fence today and saved her dogs. How was your Memorial Day?! (WTF?!) #ohno #badass #brave #fight #bear

And if you want to see the raw footage without the hilarious "Oh No" music:

@bakedlikepie

Reply to @cynthianatsalazar @tempurashrimp guess you a fighter and a flighter haha. Love you, you badass! #badass #cousinhailey


Hailey explained in a follow-up video that her family lives in a mountainous area and that bears wandering into their yard isn't a rare occurrence, especially in the summer. However, the shoving of the bear off the wall was unusual.

At first, when Hailey heard the dogs barking, she thought they were barking at another dog or a squirrel or something. When she went out to the yard to tell them to stop, she saw the bear leaning over the wall trying to pick up the youngest of the family's four dogs. Hailey said that her first instinct was to push the bear, which is exactly what she did.

It's common knowledge that you don't mess with a mama bear, and it's unclear whether Hailey noticed the two cubs that were on the wall just before the confrontation. She is fortunate that she was not attacked by the bear herself. She said she didn't have to push it very hard to make it lose its balance, perhaps because she took it by surprise while it was distracted by the dogs.

Hailey ended up with a sprained finger and a scraped knee, but she and the dogs are both fine following the incident.

"My daughter is a hero," Hailey's mother Citlally told McClatchy News. "My daughter literally made eye contact with death and pushed it off a ledge."

This is one of those stories that no one would believe if it hadn't been caught on film. "She ran up and shoved the mama bear right off the wall!" Yeah, right. Oh, you mean she literally did exactly that? Okay then.

Lessons learned: Humans, don't mess with mama bears. And bears, don't mess around with Hailey.

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