WARNING: Disturbing content below.

A man has been mauled to death after he tried to take a photograph alongside a bear.

Prabhu Bhatara had stopped to relieve himself in a forest in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Thursday when the incident occurred, the Hindustan Times reported.

The man spotted the injured bear and decided to snap a selfie with it but when he approached, the creature’s fight instinct immediately kicked in.

“Bhatura died on the spot,” forest ranger Dhanurjaya Mohapatra said.

Horrific video of the incident filmed by a bystander shows the bear attacking Bhatara, as terrified witnesses scream, the NY Post reports. A stray dog even attempted to go after the bear by barking at it, but the victim could not be saved.

Bhatara’s death is Odisha’s third selfie-related fatality since last December, with two men crushed to death by elephants while trying to take selfies in separate incidents.

SELFIES AND WILD ANIMALS DON’T MIX

While few photos are guaranteed to attract a bigger flurry of likes than a selfie with an animal, those seemingly harmless snaps may actually cause a lot of damage. And the problem is growing so fast that even Instagram has taken a stand.

The photo sharing site cracked down on animal selfies on its platform last December. Now, when you search for hashtags like #slothselfie or #quokkaselfie on Instagram, a pop-up message appears with a warning that the posts you’re about to see may be associated with animal abuse.

“Animal abuse and the sale of endangered animals or their parts is not allowed on Instagram,” the pop-up reads. “You are searching for a hashtag that may be associated with posts that encourage harmful behaviour to animals or the environment.”

But not everybody is happy about the move. Last month, Western Australia’s attempts to capitalise on the quokka selfie craze were hampered by the Instagram warning those clicking on the #quokkaselfie hashtag, a key attraction for overseas visitors, receiving the alert.

PerthNow understands Rottnest Island Authority acting executive director Michelle Reynolds has been working with the social media giant in a bid to remove it. Meanwhile, an authority spokesman said the warning was unhelpful.

Instagram decided to post the warnings after being approached by the World Animal Protection, which had research that showed a 292 per cent increase in the number of selfies with wild animals posted since 2014. More than 40 per cent of those photos depicted the animals being hugged, held, ridden or inappropriately handled, the group said.

The decision follows a number of headline-making incidents in which animals have died and suffered due to tourists trying to take photos with them.

That includes a shocking incident in the Amazon where tour guides climbing a tree to yank a sloth down for tourists to photograph, in what’s reportedly common practice.

It appears that Australians are the worst at abusing animals for our Instagram feeds — Australia has the highest concentration (35 per cent) of wildlife selfies according to social listening research commissioned by WAP.

However selfies aren’t the only thing that’s hurting animals, some tourists find other ways. Case in point: Police in China are hunting a tourist who stole a dying dolphin from a beach by throwing it over his back and carrying it off.

Images show the smiling man in swimming shorts casually walking away with the poor animal slung over his shoulder.

With the NY Post.