Cats are among the boldest creatures on the planet, of that there’s no doubt. They’ll confront most creatures without hesitation, but you’d think they’d draw the line at full-grown bears. However, that’s not the case at all, as a recent viral TikTok shows.
In the 30-second clip, filmed on a Ring doorbell camera and uploaded by Jennifer Dwan (username @poconobuyersagent), a cat is seen on what appears to be a large porch confronting a bear. It lunges at the bear twice, startling the far bigger creature and causing it to retreat in shame. The kitty then sits nonchalantly as though nothing had happened. The video’s on-screen caption reads, “My Black Cat Meets Black Bear!! Cat Wins!!!!! Lol.”
The amusing footage garnered a lively response from users of the popular video-sharing platform.
How did TikTok react?
There was much praise for the brave feline, with comments like, “good kitty,” and “The SASS fir me.” One user even said, “Taking a cat with me on my next hike.”
Others were more concerned for the cat, writing things like “Maybe leave your cat inside, especially at night,” “Good thing for your cat, that the bear was just curious and not hungry. You would be watching a much different video,” and “Why is your cat outside?”
However, as is often the case with a video like this, most comments came when it was taken and used by an account with more followers.
Humorous responses to the reshared video included, “Pray for the bear,” “despite the claws and teeth a cat’s greatest weapon is, in fact, the audacity,” “Named him T’Challa. He is who he thinks he is,” “Cats really be on the craziest side missions,” “bear was wondering if not friend why friend shaped,” and “the cat: call an ambulance… but not for me.”
There was a ton of admiration for the cat under this one, with comments like, “”If the camera wasn’t there we wouldn’t never known the guts and determination he had to protect his home,” “The bear even stood up to make itself bigger and the cat said “so?”” “cat’s confident & bravery is bigger than their size” and “T’Challa was a panther in that moment.”
Others noted its carefree reaction to the situation, writing things like, “Cat just sat there afterwards like period” and “I love how the cat just sits down and curls up their tail. “yeah, that’s right”.”
According to the most recent information available at Statista, as of 2022, the deadliest animals to humans regarding the annual number of people they kill are mosquitos, as mosquito-related deaths number around 1,000,000 per year. They’re followed by snakes with 100,000, dogs with 30,000, freshwater snails with 20,000, assassin bugs with 12,000, and tsetse flies with 10,000. The rest of the list comprises ascaris roundworms, crocodiles, tapeworms, hippopotamuses, elephants, lions, African cape buffalos, deer, and bees.
Bears are nowhere to be seen. Maybe that’s because cats like T’Challa are secretly protecting us from them? Have we just uncovered a global feline conspiracy? Probably not, to be fair.