In September 2024, videos circulated on the Internet in which a young man encounters bears: in one recording they catch him in his den, in another they drive him up a tree. We decided to check what is actually captured in these videos.
Many Russian media wrote about the unexpected and dangerous meeting of Serbian blogger Stefan Jankovic with wild animals (for example RT, Lenta.ru, Life, "Evening Moscow"), informational And entertaining portals, social network users (“VKontakte", X) and blogging platforms (“Peekaboo", "Zen"), as well as popular Telegram channels: "Ax 18+"(2.2 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Ax Live"(520,000), "Dvach"(428,000), "Dmitry Nicotin"(370,000), "Mediaka"(229,000), etc. It is reported that, while walking through the forest, the man climbed into a hole, which turned out to be a den. The blogger allegedly tried to escape from the animals by climbing a tree, but they surrounded him, preventing him from descending. The further fate of Yankovic is not reported in publications.
The main character of the videos is Serbian Stefan Jankovic (Janko), who writes 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 challenges and uploads his own tracks. On September 13, 2024, Yankovic posted on his Instagram page video, in which he encounters a bear in a den. The blogger’s face shows that he is scared, and the video itself is accompanied by the caption “On the edge of life.” The publication, which received 4.4 million likes and thousands of comments from concerned readers, was widely circulated on the Internet. The next day, a new one appeared on Yankovic's profile. video clip: the blogger climbed a tree, supposedly to escape from bears, but found himself surrounded by animals guarding him on the ground. This post, containing the comment “The first stop after their house is the top of the tree,” received significantly fewer reactions.
However, a day later the blogger posted video, in which he no longer escapes from formidable predators, but plays with them and feeds one of the bears, and even offers the animal to take a treat directly from his mouth. The caption for this recording is much less frightening (“No one believed that a person could be friends with a bear”), and the caption “We became best friends” was superimposed on the video itself. In the background you can see some wooden buildings and a fence - obviously, this is not happening in a deep forest.
On September 17, Yankovic published a 26-minute video on his YouTube channel. video with the dramatic title "Spent 24 Hours with a Bear in the Woods (Didn't End Well)." However, from the first frames it becomes clear that the video was not filmed in the thicket of the forest, where the blogger accidentally stumbled upon a den. He says that he went to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Mount Ozren, where several years ago a local resident found orphaned bear cubs and saved them from certain death.
From the very first minutes of the video, Yankovic plays with the bears, pets them, feeds them from his hands and mouth - and they behave quite friendly. In the background, buildings inside the enclosure are visible, where, apparently, animals live, and at the fifth minute they come into the frame spectatorswho are watching what is happening from behind the fence. Part of the video removed in the “den”, however, in these frames the blogger does not look as scared as in the viral video from Instagram, and in some excerpts someone else’s legs are clearly visible outside - obviously, Yankovic was not alone with dangerous animals at that moment. On the tree the man really climbed up, but not at all fleeing from the bears, but in an attempt (unsuccessful) to film how they climb the trees.
In the description of the video on YouTube, the blogger left link to the shooting location on Google Maps. This is paragliding club ParaGhost, where guests can, among other things, visit shelter for wild animals. In addition to two bears - Masha and Lyubitsa - there are also some other animals rescued by the owners of the club. Judging by photos and videos V social networks ParaGhost, Yankovic is far from the only visitor who has ventured into such close contact with the shelter’s pets.
Thus, the Serbian blogger did indeed have close interactions with bears, but their encounter was not a random incident in the forest. Everything took place 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 lived among people since 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 communication with them. The excerpts previously posted by the man on Instagram were, apparently, staged, and the demonstration of fear from meeting bears was acting. This allowed Yankovic to create the false impression that he was in danger, and thereby gain likes and followers.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: Stefan_jankovich /Instagram
Read on the topic:
- Is it true that the saying “the first pancake is lumpy” is associated with bears?
- Is it true that polar bears cover their noses with their paws when hunting?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
