A video of a snowboarder traveling down the side of a mountain in Japan seems to capture footage of a bear chasing her unbeknownst to her.
As Kelly Murphy begins to record her descent down the slopes, a bear can be seen running after her in the left corner of the screen.
When she turns, viewers can spot the animal pursuing her from a close distance.
As Murphy picks up speed, the bear seems to give up and the woman reaches the bottom of the slope unharmed and unaware of how close she came to being seriously injured if not killed.
One can only imagine the terror that struck her when she reviewed the video later.
Snowboarder Chased By A BearThis snowboarder in Japan was totally unaware of the bear chasing her down the piste
Posted by Sky News on Monday, April 11, 2016
Social media users commented on the video saying the video "looks quite fake" and "the bear would have gotten her easily."
@RichardWiseman Looks quite fake though. She stopped not very far, the bear would have gotten her easily.
— SimonHain (@SimonHain) April 11, 2016
The snowboarder/bear video is completely fake, right? Am I missing something?
— European Bunny (@tweetyaca) April 11, 2016
consensus on the Sky News Japan snowboard bear is: "ridiculously fake", "super fake", "99.9% sure it's fake"
— Tom Chivers (@TomChivers) April 11, 2016
But according to
, Murphy has insisted that the video is real.
"Yes the video is real," she told The Independent. "I didn't know anything was happening at the time, but it's so scary to watch it back now. I think I'll stick to the runs with my friends from now on."
Snopes, a website that aims to validate viral stories and Internet rumors, has also questioned whether or not the video is real.
Here are the reasons why people are suspicious:
- The bear seems to be the same distance behind the snowboarder while it's in the frame, and it's hidden before each time it comes back into view.
- The snowboarder isn't s first travelling very fast. The bear should be able to catch up to her.
- The video itself is too short and uneventful to have filmed without the bear.
- The bear roars loudly and should have been heard by Murphy. Plus, "the audio is unrealistic," and the bears growls seem to be at the same volume at every distance from the snowboarder. "It's also unlikely that the camera could capture such clear audio of the bear galloping while Murphy made her way down the hill," according to Snopes.
- No wind interference can be heard.
- The bear appears to be a computer-generated image.
- Five days before uploading the video with the bear to YouTube, Murphy uploaded other videos of herself snowboarding on the same day. The time gap would give her time to edit the footage.
Cox Media Group
