About

Hank The Tank refers to a 500-pound black bear that trended as a viral story from the New York Times in early 2022. Reportedly, Hank lost his fear of humans and actively broke into the homes of Lake Tahoe residents to steal their food before going back into the forests of California, becoming a local legend. Interestingly, Hank also reportedly does not appear to hibernate and instead continues to amass food and is immune to conventional anti-bear measures. Memes and reactions on social media, which used the NYT images as an exploitable or as fan art, appeared online shortly after the story began trending.

Origin

On February 20th, 2022, the New York Times^[4] published a story about Hank the Tank, which, since July 2021 had reportedly broken into over 28 homes and racked up over 100 calls to the police about his presence in a Lake Tahoe neighborhood. While most black bears only get to be between 100 and 300 pounds on average in his area, the months of consuming human food without hibernation caused Hank to balloon up to 500 pounds in size, reportedly making it easier for him to break through doors and fences to get to food.

As the NTY story on Hank went viral and trended on Twitter that day, memes and reactions began popping up shortly after. For example, a Reddit post was made to the subreddit /r/AbsoluteUnits^[1] by Redditor TH30PH1LU5-_-, where it gained 500 upvotes in two days (shown below).

Spread

Alongside word of Hank The Tank spreading on social media, so did people creating memes and various references about him, particularly with fan art. For example, on February 19th, 2022, Twitter user PeterBrosnan111^[2] tweeted a photo of Hank in an attempt to start a social campaign that called for his safety. According to the picture (shown below), Hank the Tank is under threat of being euthanized if captured by wildlife officials, and instead, the image asked why he can't be taken to a bear sanctuary, earning 200 likes in three days.

On February 21st, a more focused campaign ideology was pushed by the Twitter user Sushimom_10,^[3] who posted a picture showing Hank the Tank next to Harambe, comparing the two's situations as them just doing what nature intended, gaining over 400 likes in one day (shown below).

Several users also began posting fan art of Hank, with some recreating the viral NYT photo from the story or imagining him as a cartoon character. One such example was posted by Twitter user t00thpasteface^[5] on February 20th, 2022, depicting Hank with a sword and shield. The tweet (seen below) received over 70 likes in three days.

Multiple Bears Report

On February 24th, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported that the nearly-three dozen crimes attributed to Hank were actually the work of three separate bears. This helped exonerate Hank, as the department announced they would begin looking into "trap, tag and haze" measures to prevent the bears from breaking into peoples' homes, rather than the euthanization or relocation efforts that were initially planned.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References