A mother-of-three endured a terrifying bear attack, during which she was covered with foliage by the animal, presumably to be eaten later.
Natalya Pasternak was in the forest with her dog and her 80-year-old friend, Valentina Gorodetskaya, gathering birch sap in Russia in 2015 when they encountered the bear.
The 55-year-old recounted her initial impulse to run but hesitated, concerned for her friend’s safety, just as the bear approached near their home in Tynda, Amur region of Siberia, about 120 miles from the Chinese border.
In an interview with The Siberian Times, she described, “When I saw the bear, I tried to escape. Then I remembered about my friend and stopped. That was the moment when the predator attacked me.”
Their dog had been the first to sense the danger, barking in warning just before the bear assaulted Pasternak and her friend.
She recalled, “The animal started to tear my legs apart and I tried to attack him with something I was using to collect birch sap.”
She added, “Then a quick thought hit me: ‘If the bear takes my legs, I’ll be disabled for the rest of my life. It’s better to die than to be a burden to my children.'”
Pasternak, a former baker, attempted to fight the bear by targeting its eyes and neck, but found it too formidable.
Gorodetskaya, despite her advanced age, bravely intervened, striking the bear with a stick.
“Valentina was also hitting the bear with a stick and praying. For some time the bear switched to her and hit her on her back. Then it started tearing me apart again,” Pasternak recounted.
“Valentina escaped and, despite her age, she made it to a water cleaning facility and called the emergency services.”
After Gorodetskaya fled, the bear began burying Pasternak, seemingly believing her to be dead.
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“Despite such a nightmare I didn’t go mad. A prayer that I was screaming out loud helped me,” she said, now working as a postal worker.
Hunter Sergei Ivanov arrived at the scene to rescue Pasternak, shooting the bear, which he said had been ‘guarding’ her, as she lay partially buried under leaves.
“I looked and saw a woman, almost completely buried. Only her bloodied face and one arm was sticking out, but she was alive and breathing,” Ivanov said.
“She asked, ‘Did you kill the bear?’. Then she said, ‘Dig me out’.”
The attack occurred in 2015, and while Gorodetskaya escaped without needing medical attention, Pasternak required hospitalization.
“I’m feeling well now and they’re helping me a lot in the hospital,” she said at the time.
“I can now stand up and walk a little bit with the help of my daughter.”
“It’s terrible to imagine what could have happened if it wasn’t for Valentina.”