Villagers in China undertook a dramatic rescue to save a bear cub who got its head stuck in a bucket.
Much like Winnie the Pooh when he got a little carried away with his honey pot, the poor bear somehow got its head stuck in a bucket.
A video was taken of the struggling animal in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwestern Qinghai Province.
Watch the tense rescue here:
The person behind the camera originally filmed the cub out in water, where the bear was most likely disorientated by the yellow bucket which had become wedged around his face.
Thankfully, the bear managed to make it back to dry land.
The animal moved slowly, probably because of its blocked vision, while one of the men on the scene approached it.
The clip cut to show the villagers trying to free the cub. At first, the local residents attempted to tie up the bear’s limbs, with some gathered around the top of the truck to hold it still while another person pulled at the bucket.
The ordeal must have been distressing for the young creature, especially since the villagers had no luck in freeing the poor bear with their strategy.
The villagers changed their tack and tied some rope around the bucket while the bear was on the ground. Then, standing in the bed of the truck, they pulled up on the rope.
At first they lifted the bear off the ground, but thankfully the little creature then popped free and fell to the floor.
With its vision no longer obstructed, the cub scampered away across the fields, seemingly unharmed.
There must have been something really exciting in that bucket for the bear to get its head so far in – hopefully it will manage to avoid any similar situations in the future.
It seems people all over the world have been doing good deeds for bears recently, as one couple in Russia even decided to adopt one of the creatures into their care.
You might think of some flaws with this decision – bears can grow to be very large, and can be very dangerous if provoked – but Svetlana and Yuriy Panteleenko have managed to live in harmony with their 7ft house guest.
The bear, named Stepan, was adopted by the couple when he was just a fluffy little three-month-old cub. Incredibly, the animal has lived with Svetlana and Yuriy for 25 years since that day.
Growing up in the company of humans meant Stepan became domesticated, he even likes to chill out on the sofa with his adopted parents in the evenings, but had he been sent back to the wild at such a young stage without a mother his chances of survival could have been greatly reduced.
Shedding some light on the unusual situation, Svetlana said:
When we adopted him, he was only three-months-old and had been found by hunters in the forest having lost his mother. He was in a very bad condition.
He absolutely loves people and is a really sociable bear – despite what people might think, he is not aggressive at all. We have never been bitten by Stepan.
He’s got so many talents and loves a picnic. It’s a wonder he doesn’t eat us out of house and home.
Contrary to what The Revenant taught us, it seems some stories of human and bear interaction can have a happy ending!
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.