Is This Montana Bear Carrying a Laptop?

In Terry Bisson’s classic 1990 science fiction short story, “Bears Discover Fire,” humans find that bears have come to use fire as a tool. These days, though, if a short video shot by a Montana man is to be believed, bears might have moved on to laptops. 

According to MTN News, Whitefish, Montana native Michael Potter began recording the bear wandering near the side of the road, and after zooming in the camera, realized that it looked to be carrying a black laptop in its jaws. While the picture is somewhat unfocused, Potter says that he has gone over the footage again and again, and has identified a small logo mark on the back, and the crease where a laptop would fold down the middle.

Here’s video of the incident, which you can use to decide for yourself: 

Wildlife officials have been trying to lure the bear—which the Daily Inter Lake identifies as a cinnamon black bear—from its den inside of a culvert beneath the highway, both for the safety of the animal, and the safety of drivers. But so far it has not taken the bait.

Still, laptop or not, Potter said the sighting was, “what makes Montana great.”