Strange story of masked woman hunter who claimed to shoot mother bear and two cubs

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES!

The anonymous masked Yakut woman appeared to boast at shooting the mother bear, and then also killing her two cubs. Pictures showed her with the trophies at the scene in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia. 

One local report stated: 'According to her, an adult bear appeared suddenly from behind a hillock. It wanted to run away, but stopped. The female hunter shot the bear, then saw two cubs and killed them too.'

But today the president of Kyymaan hunting club, Alexander Tastygin, 47, gave a different account. He told local media that the bear attacked a group of people hunting bighorn sheep close to Oymyakon, famous as the coldest permanent settlement in the world. 

The video was filmed so a report could be made to inspectors. 

'This is not kind of selfie, and no one wanted to boast somehow,' he insisted. 'The photo and video were made for the report for the hunting inspectors. Unfortunately, some employee of the inspection leaked the video to the Internet.

'This happened when me and my friends were hunting bighorn sheep. We climbed up a hill and on the other side was a mother bear with cubs. We did not see them. 

'The hunters started shooting the sheep, and at this moment bear with cubs turned towards us. The bear apparently thought that we were shooting at them and ran towards a girl hunter, who had lagged behind the group.

'The girl had shot all her bullets and was recharging the rifle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the bears running toward her. She screamed and ran to the hunters.

'I was the first who heard her cry and killed the adult bear from the second shot. It was good I had two bullets in the riffle. The bear would have killed the girl in two seconds.'

He said: 'As for the cubs, it would not make sense to leave them to the wolves. So we shot them too.'

The kills were reported to the hunters with the video evidence, he said. He said the woman was lucky. 'She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. God forbid someone gets in such a situation.' 

He hit back at online critics who complained about the cruelty of killing the bears. 'Couch hunters who saw bears only in the zoo, and mama's daughter with teddy bears... I ask you to refrain from negative comments. At that moment, it was a question of life and death. And I had no choice.'

The unnamed woman was said to be wearing the mask to protect her from the sun.