On a wing and a prayer: Polar bear forces Russian film crew to seek safety on SOVIET PLANE wreckage (VIDEO)

A group of Russian explorers seemed like promising prey for a starving polar bear that decided to pursue them, although their quadcopter and professional gear didn’t look like a tasty meal.

The crew descended on a desolate Arctic coast to capture footage of the polar wildlife, but it was exactly the same wildlife – in the form of a hungry bear – that chased them in a dramatic cat-and-mouse pursuit.

Leonid Kruglov, a photographer working for NatGeo and Russian media outlets, filmed the heavyweight predator slowly approaching the crew, who had found shelter on the wings of a defunct Soviet retro plane.

READ MORE: RT team nearly attacked by POLAR BEAR while making wildlife film in Russia (VIDEO)

At one point, the bear came uncomfortably close to his would-be victims, but didn’t follow through on his offensive. Usually, polar bears would avoid the group because of their quadcopter, but this one was obviously rawboned and hungry, so it overcame its fear of the flying device.

Kruglov himself has previously told of other perils of Arctic exploration, sharing a series of photos showing an angry walrus attacking and badly damaging the team’s inflatable boat.

Fortunately for them, the creature swam away empty-handed.

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