The scariest animal survival stories of all time including the man who was swallowed by a hippo and the bear attack victim who ate his own dog
BLOODIED and bruised, the skeletal survivor of an apparent bear attack lays in his hospital bed, reportedly claiming he was kept prisoner in a cave for a MONTH by the beast.
News that the man, believed to be called Alexander, was attacked by a brown bear which broke his back and dragged him away in a forest in Tuva Republic, Siberia, Russia, spread like wildfire.
The man was reportedly rushed to hospital with multiple injuries and told hospital staff he drank his own urine to survive - though cracks began to appear in the story last week when every hospital in Tuva denied ever having treated the man.
It's now claimed that the man could have been in a hospital in Kazakhstan all along - and that the bear attack was fabricated.
Over the weekend a senior doctor in Kazakhstan said Alexander P was afflicted with chronic psoriasis, a skin condition that also afflicts Kim Kardashian, that left him disfigured.
But while the bear attack story has seemingly been disproven, a number of people have been known to survive similar, if not worse animal attacks...
Stranded man ate beloved dog after bear attack
Lost hiker Marco Lavoie was forced to eat his beloved dog after it saved him from a bear attack when they were hiking in a remote corner of Northern Canada in 2013.
The 44 year old was left injured in snow and freezing temperatures when a bear raided his camp leaving him stranded with no food or equipment essential to survive.
Police believe Marco survived the bear attack because his dog, a German shepherd, who got in between the man and the bear and chased him off.
Weak and starving, Marco went on the hunt for food but badly twisted his ankle.
Now stranded, Marco knew he was close to death and made the heartbreaking decision to kill his beloved pet animal with a rock and eat his body.
A week later he was found by a mountain rescue team who were out looking for him.
He was walking barefoot with a limp and suffering badly from hypothermia, dehydration and starvation.
Marco had lost more than six stone - and experts say he was only days away from death when he was rescued.
'Bear ripped my scalp off like paper'
Hunting guide Kootoo Shaw was wearing nothing but long johns and a T-shirt when a 400 pound polar bear dragged him by his toes towards the ocean in Kimmirut, Canada, in September 2003.
The 46 year old was working as a guide on a hunting trip when the attack took place in the early hours of the morning.
Kootoo and the captain of the Mayukalik Hunters and Trappers Organisation woke up to find the polar bear had ripped through the ceiling of his tent as they slept.
“That was the scariest thing. It looked like the tent was full of snow with all that fur,” he said. “I thought, 'I am going to leave my kids behind'.”
Kootoo scrambled for a knife to defend himself but couldn’t find one so decided to run.
But as he tried to make his escape, he tripped on a rock and the polar bear launched his attack.
After dragging Kootoo towards the ocean, the polar bear sunk his claws into his back and sliced his head open with his teeth.
“It sounded like paper ripping,” he said. "He had his claws under my neck for a while, I could hear him breathing.
"He took his claws off but was still jumping on top of me up and down four times."
The group’s cook grabbed a gun that belonged to one of the American sport hunters on the trip and shot the bear twice, killing the animal.
Kootoo remained conscious for the hour long canoe trip to Kimmirut health centre with his bloodied head wrapped in a towel to slow the bleeding.
Three handfuls of sand were removed from the blood-clotted area around his skull, which doctors thought may have saved his life by slowing down the bleeding.
He also suffered multiple scratches, gouges and a gaping two-inch hole in his back.
Kootoo underwent 13 hours of surgery and received 300 stitches to reattach his scalp.
'Shark locked its jaws around my head'
Wildlife tour guide Lisa Mondy thought she was going to die when a 13ft great white shark locked its jaws around her head and pulled her underwater at Jimmy's Beach in Port Stephens, Australia, in 2011.
The 24 year old was making the most of a sunny lunch break and was wakeboarding with friends when she was attacked.
“I didn’t land a jump and the board came off my feet,” she said.
“I started swimming and on my third stroke, a great white shark sped straight up at me vertically from below.
“It hit me hard, launching about three feet out of the water as its jaws closed around my head and arm. At first I thought it had to have been a boat that hit me, it was so solid.”
The shark dragged Lisa underwater but lost grip of her and, thanks to her life jacket, she came back to the surface.
Lisa’s face and neck were cut to pieces, and she lost almost all the muscle on her left arm.
Remarkably, after 16 hour surgery, Lisa regained feeling in her arm. She's since made a full recovery and now works in shark conservation.
Swallowed head first by a hippo
Wildlife expert Paul Templer, 49, survived an attack from a “monster hippo who swallowed him head first and threw him around like a “rag doll”.
The 49 year old was left with horrific bite wounds and only one arm after the terrifying attack in his native Zimbabwe in 1996.
His near-fatal attack happened near the Victoria Falls when the animal knocked one of his friends out of his canoe.
Paul described the animal as "bigger than a Ranger Rover" and “one of the biggest hippos he has ever seen” measuring around 15ft long, over five ft high and weighing a colossal 8000lbs.
As Paul reached for his friend who was struggling in the water, the hippo locked him between his jaws head first.
He remembered the hippo’s putrid breath smelt of “rotting eggs” and says his throat and mouth were “warm and slimy”.
The hippo spat Paul out before sinking his tusks into him again and dragging him under water.
Paul was spat out again and rescued by one of his friends.
Tragically, his other friend who was knocked from his canoe by the beast drowned.
It took Paul eight agonising hours to get to Victoria Falls hospital without any painkillers.
Doctors were forced to amputate his arm which had been shattered by the attack.
Double grizzly bear attack
Todd Orr survived a double attack by a grizzly bear while scouting hunting locations in Montana, United States, in 2016.
The 50 year old was out looking for elk while walking a trail in the North Fork of Bear Creek in Montana’s Madison Range.
Three miles in, he stepped out into an open meadow where he was confronted by a bear and her cubs.
The sow charged at Todd and attacked him, biting and beating him on the arms, shoulders and back.
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The bear stopped and disappeared for a moment before charging again.
This time, the bear slashed Todd across the head with her claws.
Despite his multiple puncture wounds, Todd was able to walk 45 minutes back to his track and drive himself to hospital where he required eight hours of stitches.
We're just glad there's no bears in the UK...