BEAR-LY ALIVE Man ‘dragged away by a bear is found ALIVE one month later looking like a mummy after being stored inside its den as food’

* This article originally appeared on www.thesun.co.uk

A Man resembling a "mummy" has been found alive in a bear's den a month after the beast attacked him and dragged him to its lair for a future meal, according to reports in Russia.

Named only as Alexander, the victim is said to have been severely injured and close to death when hunting dogs supposedly found him in Russia’s remote Tuva region. The emaciated man was reportedly rushed to hospital where medics discovered he'd broken his spine after being set upon by the brown bear. He is said to have told doctors that the predator had overpowered him  - then tossed him in its den where it kept him for a month.

CLOSE TO DEATH

According to the Siberian Times, Alexander explained: “The bear preserved me as food for later. I drank my own urine to survive." A group of Russian hunters found Alexander after their dogs barked and refused to move on from a bear's den they passed in the forest, it's reported. When the hunters checked inside the lair they apparently saw what they believed to be a "human mummy" - until they realised he was alive. A video purportedly shot in hospital shows the bearded man opening his eyes and confirming his first name. He was described as having “severe injuries and rotting tissue” from lying motionless for so long in the den. “Local medics say they cannot explain how the man survived such injuries,” the report claimed. The exact location where he was supposedly found has not been revealed, nor the name of the hospital where he was treated. The video shows him being spoken to by the medical staff in Russian rather than the local Tuvan language. As yet no one had provided definitive evidence that the bear attack took place but numerous Russian news sites have reported the claims and EADaily news agency who first reported the story insists its sourcing is accurate.

'AMAZING'

Dr Louise Gentle, senior lecturer in wildlife conservation at Nottingham Trent University, told Sun Online that a bear attacking, and dragging, a human into its den is a "very rare thing to happen". The expert, also a researcher in animal behaviour, explained: "It's amazing how this man survived. "It's very rare for a bear to go near a human - bears are actually more wary of us and therefore avoid us. "Yet in this case it seems the bear seized an opportunity and stored the man as food to eat at a later date. It is possible that the man somehow antagonised the animal - may be the bear had cubs nearby and was protecting them. "It's a weird scenario."