WATCH: Brown Bear Practices Holding Its Breath Underwater

A Syrian brown bear living at the Orphaned Wildlife Center, a wildlife sanctuary in Otisville, New York, lives a life of ease. With its extra free time, the bear has taken to practicing a critical survival skill—holding its breath underwater. (OK, maybe it’s not such a critical skill for a bear living at a sanctuary.) It seems like he really enjoys it, though.

“Leo (syrian brown bear) [is] trying to break his record for holding his breath under water,” writes the Orphaned Wildlife Center in its Facebook post sharing the video. “Guinness worthy?”

In the video, the bear repeatedly dunks its eyes, nose, and mouth into the water and holds it there, staying quite still. It really does seem like the bear’s practicing.

See a large brown bear holding its breath underwater here:

Leo and the other Syrian brown bears at this sanctuary were part of a breeding program designed to help save the species in the wild, according to the sanctuary’s website.

“When that [program] fell through, some of those bears came to us,” the website says.

Syrian brown bears are not native to the United States, so the center can’t release them into the wild.

Source: https://outdoors.com/watch-brown-bear-practices-holding-its-breath-underwater/