A video showing a bear cub’s heroic effort to keep up with his mother has fascinated people all over the world.
The video, shot by a Russian man, was shared millions of times on social media after a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society placed it online.
It depicts a mother bear who reached the summit of a mountain in the Magadan region on June 19 but had to wait for her youngster, who was struggling to make its way up.
The cub is shown getting dangerously near to the top before suddenly losing its grasp and plummeting back down in a matter of seconds.
While some viewers waited with bated breath to see if the cub would ever reach the peak, others slammed the film.
They believe the bears were attempting to flee the drone that was photographing them, and that the incident would not have occurred if the drone had not been present.
The cub loses its balance and falls while traversing the icy face, clinging on with his small paws.
He appears to acquire some traction to fall again, but he appears to be more active than ever as he climbs back up.
Eventually, the cub finds better footing on the track that his mother has already cut and makes it to the summit.
‘I was stressed watching this,’ one Twitter user said.
‘I couldn’t take it,’ said another. I had to skip forward to make sure he made it.’
‘This is nearly giving me lion king memories,’ one joked.
Others said the bear’s battle was inspirational.
‘This tiny bear might teach us all a lesson: look up and don’t give up.’
Others remarked on the mother bear’s parenting abilities, with some praising her and others speculating they may be the reason she only has one youngster.
‘Parents may take a cue from mama bear: sometimes you have to let youngsters figure it out on their own, even if they slide and struggle a little,’ one Twitter user commented.
‘Female bears typically have two cubs in a litter, and they will stay with their mother until they are at least two years old,’ according to David Videcette. I’ll let you figure out why this mother only has one cub.’
‘Fair play to the small kid, though, for not giving up,’ he added.
Meanwhile, Anand Mahindra, an Indian billionaire businessman, tweeted: ‘If I’m not mistaken, the mother bear actually pushed the cub slip down again and try harder, so as to increase his willpower.’
However, he also called the video the “greatest” Monday morning motivation.
‘That tiny bear just wouldn’t give up,’ he wrote on Twitter. I’m going to start this week – and every week – with that attitude.’
Others have expressed concern over the deployment of a drone to capture the footage, which may have frightened the bears into thinking it was a bird of prey.
The drone swoops in near the conclusion of the film, just as the youngster appears to have made it, and the mother bear appears to frantically swipe to get her cub.
Instead of assisting the child, she ends up dislodging the snow around it and sending it sliding much more than before.
The video was originally published on YouTube before being picked up by Ziya Tong, a Royal Canadian Geographical Society member.
The TV host emphasized that the video she showed was also an example of poor drone usage and tweeted instructions for any novice wildlife drone operators to follow.
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