He is the master of stickfighting - using a small tree as a quarterstaff. Claude is a 6-year-old orphan Asiatic black bear, a resident of the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima. His ability to twirl sticks is jaw-dropping - so good that it looks fake, but there are other videos at Japanator (with a baseball bat) and here. The bear was not trained in this performance. It could be dysfunctional behavior of a zoo animal, or simple playfulness.
2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan