Vasya the cat chases away a brown bear in the woods of Eastern Siberia

The astonishing video of a humble domestic cat winning a territory battle with a young brown bear was filmed on 31 July by a group of fishermen in the north of Irkutsk region. 

The friends were having a party after a day on the Angara River near Ust-Ilimsk, when a brown bear approached their camp.

The predator was several metres away from the campfire, when cat Vasily, or Vasya, taken along on the trip as a companion, pounced forward and stood between the humans and the bear. 

The video filmed by angler Sergey Tarasov shows the puffed up cat with its back arched and tail up standing firmly in front of the puzzled predator.

The cat did not budge even when the bear stood high on its hind legs to mark a pine tree, towering above the tiny feline. 

The anglers who all sound happily intoxicated are heard trying to make the cat retreat.

‘Vasya go away from there I said! Look at it, it just keeps standing up, and it doesn’t even move! I didn’t know I had such a fearless cat!’ - says the cat’s female owner. 

‘Yes, and you scold it (at home) for tearing wallpaper!’ - her male companion answers.

After a several minutes long stand off the brown bear left the camp, with the cat seen eyeing its back and not moving until the hefty creature vanished from sight.

One of the fishermen is heard saying: ‘Well done Vasily Vasilyevich! This is it, you are on the front page! The biggest piece of meat is yours!’

The video was shared by a friend who explained why the anglers didn’t move during the cat and the bear encounter. 

‘Do you think they were supposed to stand up or run away? Then the bear would have definitely chased them. 

'My friends were by the fire, and were ready to use it. 

'Bears wouldn’t usually go to fires, plus the smell of smoke scares them. 

'I’d say well done to my friends for behaving calmly. They didn’t twitch, didn’t wave their hands. 

'The cat stood between the owners and the bear. Well done! 

'No matter how small the cat is, its threatening posture and sound scare away large animals, I’ve seen cases like this on internet’, said resident of Ust-Ilimsk Vladimir Vlasov.