A man ‘looking like a mummy’ was rescued from a bear den after the animal broke his spine and tossed him into the back of its lair to save for a later meal.

Named only as Alexander, the man was found by hunting dogs after the bear kept him in its den for a whole month in Russia’s remote Tuva region.

Close to death, the emaciated man was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered he had broken his spine in a fight with the brown bear.

He told them that the large animal had overpowered him and saved him as food for later.

He added that he drank his own urine to survive, and doctors said it was a ‘miracle’ that he wasn’t killed.

A group of Russian hunters found Alexander after their dogs barked and refused to move on from a bear den they passed in the forest in mountainous Tuva, according to reports.

more at dailymail.co.uk

photos courtesy of Rey Gore The Siberian Times

Stolby Nature Reserves