A lone hunter has been rescued and taken to hospital after being attacked by a bear in the vast Russian wilderness, managing to get help by crawling for hours across frozen wasteland, despite crippling injuries.
Local media revealed the man’s ordeal on Friday, relating how he’d been knocked to the ground and left for dead by the dangerous creature, which had reportedly been spooked by his dogs. The 58-year-old, who was setting traps, received serious injuries during the encounter, making it nearly impossible for him to move.
After managing to drive off the bear but still fearing the worst, he attempted to make it to a friend’s hunting hut, dragging himself for four kilometers across the sub-arctic taiga, a feat which apparently took the injured huntsman around eight hours.
However, finding no-one around, he left a note which read, “I have been attacked by a bear. It broke me a bit,” urging his buddy to call for help “or I’ll die here.”
A message posted by the region’s Ministry of Internal Affairs on Friday confirmed that a local had found the desperate man’s message and turned it in to police.
Local authorities scrambled to the place mentioned in the note, located 170 kilometers (around 105 miles) away from the village of Boguchany, and found the wounded hunter there. He was given first aid at the scene and was then taken to a district center for treatment. According to the statement, he is now in a stable condition.
Another man in a different Russian region had a close call with a young bear last year in the city of Yaroslavl, located around 260 kilometers (162 miles) from Moscow. He had tried to film the creature, which was prowling the city’s streets, but was assaulted. A local taxi driver managed to scare away the beast and took the injured would-be film-maker to hospital, where he underwent a major operation.
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