Agony of bear hit by car goes viral in Malaysia, prompting calls for animal crossings

A heartbreaking dashcam video of a bear writhing in agony in the middle of a Malaysian highway after apparently being hit by a car went viral on Monday, stirring calls for wildlife crossings to help animals as their natural habitats continue to be threatened by development.

An eight-second video shared by tens of thousands of people on X, showed what appeared to be a black sun bear rolling around in pain in the middle of the Kuantan-East Coast Highway, forcing vehicles to slow down and drive around the injured animal.

Debris was also visible around the bear in the video, which garnered nearly 200,000 views and more than 2,500 shares on the social media platform.

Many viewers responded by tagging the wildlife department, urging authorities to assist the animal and provide timely updates on its condition.

It is unclear whether the bear survived the incident.

Many also criticised the government’s tendency to favour large scale developments that end up placing wildlife in direct conflict with people and human activities, especially cars barrelling down highways at high speed.