An influencer who crawled into an unoccupied bear den didn’t find it empty for long.
On Sept. 13, Stefan Jankovic of Serbia posted a video of his intensebear encounter on Instagram,captioning the post “on the edge of life.” according to Storyful.
In the clip, Jankovic shows himself sitting in the empty den he crawled into, looking out at the bear now seated at the entrance. The bear appears to make several attempts to approach the influencer in the den before backing up enough for Jankovic toexit the den.
Outside the hole, Jankovic comes nose to nose with the animal, who alternates between sniffing the man and his camera.
Influencer Stefan Janković encountering a bear in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Storyful
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/influencer-meets-bear-tout-091924-4c17f336a1d342bb8236cab5ebb00014.jpg)
Storyful
According to theSarajevo Times, Petar Tubic took in the bears after each was found orphaned at a young age in the wild. Tubic told the outlet he now looks after the bears and several other rescued wild animals. He added that the bears are socialized and used to human interaction because of their upbringing under human care.
Jankovic shared two more clips with the animals after posting the video of himself in the bear den. One featuresthe influencer in a treelooking down at two bears near the base. The other video featuresJankovic feeding and petting two bearswith the caption, “We became best friends.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
A Scottish tourist visiting the Carpathian Mountains in April 2024 also hada scary close encounter with a bear. The woman and her friend spotted two brown bears while driving in the area and stopped to take pictures with the animals. When one of the travelers went to take a selfie with a bear, the wild animal mauled her, leaving the woman with injuries that required a hospital visit. After the incident, the mauled woman acknowledged she felt lucky to leave the encounter with her life.
source: people.com