Is the video true about the Serbian blogger who climbed into the den and met a bear there?

In September 2024, videos on which the young man collides with bears diverged on the Internet: on one record they find him in his den, on the other - they drive him on a tree. We decided to check what is actually captured in these videos.

Many Russian media wrote about the unexpected and dangerous meeting of the Serbian blogger Stefan Yankovich with wild animals (for example RT, Lenta.ru, Life, "Evening Moscow"), Information And Entertaining Portals, users of social networks (""VKontakte" X) and the platform blog ("Picabu","Zen"), As well as popular Telegram channels:" "Ax 18+"(2.2 million views at the time of writing this analysis),"The ax live"(520 000),"Dual"(428 000),"Dmitry Nicotin"(370 000),"Medica”(229,000) and others reports that, walking through the forest, the man climbed into the pit, which turned out to be a Berlogue. The blogger allegedly tried to escape from animals, climbing a tree, but they surrounded him, preventing him from going down. About the future fate of Yankovich in publications is not reported. 

Source: Stefan_jankovich / Instagram

The main character of the videos is Serb Stefan Yankovich, who leads popular blogs in Instagram* (971,000 subscribers at the time of writing this analysis), on YouTube (1.4 million) and in Tiktok (1.1 million). The young man publishes videos about travel and sports, participates in Chellenge and laid out his own tracks. September 13, 2024 on his Instagram page, Yankovich posted videoIn which he encounters a bear in the den. The blogger’s face shows that he is scared, and the video itself is accompanied by the signature “on the edge of life”. The publication, which collected 4.4 million likes and thousands of comments on worried readers, dispersed widely over the network. The next day, a new video clip: The blogger climbed onto a tree, supposedly fleeing the bears, but was surrounded by the beasts that punish him on the ground. This post, containing a comment “The first stop after their house - the top of the tree”, gained several times less reactions.

However, a day later the blogger laid out video, in which he no longer saves from formidable predators, but plays with them and feeds one of the bears, and even invites the animal to take a treat directly from his mouth. The signature for this record is already much less frightening (“No one believed that a person could be friends with a bear”), and the title “We became best friends” was imposed on the video. In the background, some wooden buildings and a fence are visible - obviously, the matter does not happen in the dense forest. 

On September 17, Yankovich published a 26-minute on his YouTube channel video With the dramatic name "I spent 24 hours with a bear in the forest (it ended not very well)." However, already from the first frames it becomes clear that the video was shot not at all in the forest more often, where the blogger accidentally stumbled upon the den. He says that he went to Bosnia and Herzegovin, to Mount Ozren, where several years ago a local resident found orphaned cubs and saved them from faithful death. 

From the very first minutes, the video Jankovich plays with bears, strokes them, feeds them from hands and out of his mouth - and they behave quite friendly. Against the background, buildings inside the aviary are noticeable, where, apparently, animals live, and in the fifth minute fall into the frame Spectatorswho observe what is happening due to the fence. Part of the video Removed In the “Berlog”, however, on these frames the blogger does not look as frightened as in the viral video from Instagram, and in some excerpts, alien legs outside are clearly visible - obviously, Yankovich was not alone with dangerous animals. On a tree man really climbed, but not having escaped from the bears at all, but in an attempt (unsuccessful) to remove how they climb trees. 

In the description of the video on YouTube, the blogger left link At the place of shooting on Google Maps. This is paralagayding club Paraghost, whose guests can, among other things, visit shelter For wild animals. In addition to two bears - Masha and Lybaty - some other animals, saved by the owners of the club, live there. Judging by Photos and video V social networks Paraghost, Yankovich is far from the only visitor who dared to communicate so close to the shelter's pets. 

Thus, the Serbian blogger really interacted closely with the bears, but their meeting was not an accidental incident in the forest. Everything happened in a shelter for wild animals, where, under the supervision of its employees, you can spend time in the company of animals. Moreover, the bears themselves have lived among people from childhood and got used to them. In the full version of the video posted on YouTube, the blogger does not show much fear of animals, but, on the contrary, is extremely inspired by communicating with them. Excerpts previously laid out by the man on Instagram were, apparently, staged, and a demonstration of fear from meeting with bears - acting. This allowed Yankovich to create a false impression that he was in danger, and, thanks to this, to gain likes and attract subscribers.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Stefan_jankovich / Instagram

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