'Foolish' influencer 'attacked' by a bear - after going into a bear cave

Influencer Stefan Janković, from Serbia, posted a video of himself online to show he had somehow ended up in a bear cave - but then the bear who lived there returned home and he found himself in a life or death situation.

In one part of the first clip, the bear was seen getting close to Janković and smelling him, in a situation the popular internet user later said was “on the edge of life”. He did not explain, however, why he went in to the cave in the first place.

In another clip, captioned ‘the one where you have nowhere to run’, the social media star showed two bears at the bottom of a tree he had climbed up. A rough translation on a Serbian news site said Janković told his followers: “You won't believe what happened to me. I spend 24 hours in the forest and a bear attacks me. . . It's waiting for me and there's another one.”

It’s unclear how Janković came to be in the bear cave or up the tree, or the precise sequence of events. In reaction to the clip, which was posted on X by Belarusian media outlet Nexta, some people were sceptical about what had actually happened.

One person suggested Janković actually knew the bears and had made friends with the furry creatures. They wrote: “Nah, you can tell the bears know him! He would have gotten his head snapped otherwise.”

Another person said the clip showed the bears in a better light than the influencer. They said: “Shows you once again. . . I'd prefer the kind bear. I think a lot of animals are much more decent than us humans.” One person added: “It looks like he got out alive this time, but next time nature will do its part.”

But others said how dangerous it was to interact with bears in the wild. One X user said: “Maybe the next edition of the famous tale "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" should add "Don't try this at home".” Another wrote: “I have never encountered someone as foolish as this individual in my [whole] life.”

One person questioned the legitimacy of the video. They said they believed it had been taken at a zoo or a circus. It is not clear where the video was filmed, but there are brown bears native to Serbia.