(Picture: Siberian Times)

What he lacks in size, he makes up for in courage.

Stas Nagornov, eight, and Nikita Nikonov, 12, were rescued by a small dachshund called Tosya when a black bear went on a rampage in Amgu, a village in far eastern Russia.

‘He caught up with Stas first,’ Nikita told the Siberian Times. ‘The bear threw him to the ground, began to trample him, bite him.

‘He grabbed his head, then shoulder and back. I watched – and ran at the bear. I didn’t think about myself or what would happen. I just wanted to save my friend.’


(Picture: The Siberian Times)

But when Nikita ran at the bear, Stas said it started ‘gnawing and clawing him’ – leaving him wounded and terrified.



At this point Tosya arrived, barking furiously at the bear.

The bear then left Nikita alone and chased Tosya into the forest.

Nikita being treated after the attack (Picture: The Siberian Times)

Luckily, the small dog eventually lost the bear and came back home in one piece.

Igor Solodun, the surgeon treating the boys, said Nikita’s bravery was ‘an incredible deed, to throw a stone at the predator, looking straight at the beast, all to save his friend’.

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But Nikita’s mum said Tosya was ‘the real saviour’.

According to one report, the dog was was rewarded with cake.