The snowboarder who ‘accidentally’ captured footage of herself being chased by a bear has denied allegations the video is a fake.
Kelly Murphy uploaded footage of her snowboarding at Hakuba 47 Winter Sports Park in Japan which captured the moment she was chased down the slopes by a bear – without her realising, reports The Mirror.
The video shows her singing Rihanna’s hit Work as she boards down the mountain, holding her camera on what appears to be a selfie stick.
There was always some suspicion that the footage was fake – but a pretty intense argument has now erupted over the video’s authenticity.
Wow! She got lucky?? #bear #snowboard #danger #wow #japan https://t.co/etHAWH60MS
— simon thompson (@barbrady1) April 11, 2016
consensus on the Sky News Japan snowboard bear is: "ridiculously fake", "super fake", "99.9% sure it's fake"
— Tom Chivers (@TomChivers) April 11, 2016
@RichardWiseman Looks quite fake though. She stopped not very far, the bear would have gotten her easily.
— Simon Hain (@SimonHain) April 11, 2016
The snowboarder/bear video is completely fake, right? Am I missing something?
— European Bunny (@tweetyaca) April 11, 2016
However, Kelly insists that the footage is genuine, telling The Independent:
Yes the video is real! I didn’t know anything was happening at the time but it’s so scary to watch it back now!
I think I’ll stick to the runs with my friends from now on lol.
There are a number of reasons most people now believe the footage to be fake.
YouTubeThe bear stays the same distance behind the board as it moves in and out of shot and Kelly doesn’t look like she was travelling fast enough to outrun the animal.
Also, her YouTube channel boasts a couple of related – although admittedly bearless – videos, but it was only set up a matter of days before…
On the other hand, Skihabuka.com suggests that it is actually possible – apparently Asiatic black bears are spotted pretty frequently during the year.
YouTubeThey hibernate from November till March and the site says:
You are unlikely to see it unless you are in Hakuba for spring skiing (April and early May) and even then you would have to be very lucky to see one.
So it’s the right time of year then, but it’s got to be fake. Hasn’t it?
