Ammon News - After a 75-year-old narrowly escaped with her life following a bear attack, we reveal the brave stories of those who faced down the deadliest creatures on Earth.
It's truly the stuff of nightmares - venturing out into the wild, only to find yourself face to face with the world's most fearsome beasts.
Earlier this week, a 75-year-old woman was lucky to escape with her life after being savaged by a bear in Sonande, northern Spain.
As the rampaging creature attempted to drag her away, her friends were miraculously able to save her by shouting until it fled in fear.
The woman, identified only as Carmen, was taken to hospital with facial injuries and a broken pelvis.
Yet the terrifying incident is far from the only incredible tale of survival against nature's deadly heavyweights.
From a man who sewed himself up after a shark attack and went to the pub, to a cool-headed villager who fooled a prowling tiger, these daredevils stared death in the eye and lived to tell the tale.
Doctor stitches up shark bite... and goes for a pint
Pub-goers love to get legless, but one New Zealand doctor nearly took it to a new level when he limped up to the bar with a festering shark bite.
James Grant was swimming near Colac Bay on the South Island when he felt what he assumed was a friend pulling on his leg.
In actual fact, a shark had latched onto the then 24-year-old after spotting him spearfishing in the water in 2014.
Instinctively, Dr Grant lashed out at the creature - which he believes to be a sevengill - with his knife, forcing it to retreat.
"I looked behind to see who it was and got a bit of a shock," he told Radio New Zealand.
"I am not sure how effective (the knife) was. I guess it let go so something must have happened, put a few nicks in it."
Swimming to the shore, the doctor noticed he'd suffered wounds up to 5cm long and calmly stitched them up with a first aid kit.
However, his pals didn't believe him when he said he had been attacked by a shark, and continued fishing until he showed them the bites.
"I thought surely he hasn't been bitten, there's no way he has been bitten, he's got to be taking the p**s," a friend told stuff.co.nz.
Realising their mistake, in true Aussie style the group immediately took Dr Grant for a pint at the Colac Bay Tavern - although the landlords gave him a bandage as he was dripping blood on the floor.
Runner strangles mountain lion to death
Travis Kauffman told how his life flashed before his eyes as a mountain lion seized upon him during a run in the mountains of Colorado.
The 31-year-old was jogging around Horsetooth Mountain Park at Fort Collins in 2019 when he heard "pine needles rustling" and realised the animal was just a few feet behind him.
"One of my worst fears was confirmed. I just had my heart sink into my stomach a little bit," he later told a press conference.
Leaping at the experienced runner, the lion clenched its jaws around his fists, clawing at his face.
But going into "fight or flight mode", Kauffman fought back, pinning down the ferocious cat in a "wrestling match".
'I was able to shift my weight and get a foot on its neck," he said.
"I stepped on its neck with my right foot and just slowly after a few minutes I thought I would be getting close and then it would start thrashing again.
"I had a few more scratches that resulted from those thrashes at that point, and I’d say another couple minutes later it finally stopped moving."
Realising he had strangled the lion to death, Kauffman incredibly then ran three more miles before getting a ride to the hospital for the numerous wounds across his face.
'We all feel extremely lucky that this attack was made by a young mountain lion on a knowledgeable runner, otherwise we may have been hosting a very different press conference,' Mark Leslie, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife manager, later said.
Pensioner fends off crocs with spanner on deadly fishing trip
Ray Mccomber's fishing trip with his best mate turned into a deadly fight for survival when a group of crocodiles attacked their boat.
The brave pensioner, 72, and pal Noel Ramage, also in his 70s, were catching mud crabs while on holiday in Leaders Creek, near Darwin, northern Australia, in 2016.
Noel had found out just weeks earlier that he had cancer and decided to join his best friend on the trip to cheer himself up. But a huge croc managed to "deliberately" capsize their 10ft boat.
Noel, who was at the back of the vessel, shouted the warning "croc Macca" - but seconds later the beast had rammed into them and sent the pair sprawling into the water.
Despite crabbing in the area for six years Noel wasn't wearing a life jacket and didn't know how to swim. He became trapped under the boat and drowned.
A whole bask of crocodiles then began to attack - and Ray managed to bash one in the head during the three-hour ordeal.
Eventually he was able to hide in mangroves before the tide changed. His terrified screams where heard by professional crab fishermen who then rescued him.
He was taken - along with the body of his friend - to a boat ramp, and later treated for severe shock, dehydration and exposure.
Noel's granddaughter Charlie Bowland told 7 News : “He was fun, out there, loving, caring, had a heart of gold, always there if I ever needed him.”
Farmer wrestles with gigantic wolf
A hardman Russian wrestled with a giant wolf and strangled it to death after it killed two of his dogs and attacked his horse.
The dramatic face-off was captured on video in January, and shows the farmer repeatedly punching the beast as it set upon him in the snow at night.
“The farmer had no time to pick up his rifle and went into a bare-handed fight with the animal,” said one report.
The man, who posed with the wolf after the attack, was later tested for rabies.
According to The Sun, wolf attacks are becoming more common in Russia's eastern region due to deforestation.
One villager said: “The woods are being destroyed and burned down, so wolves are losing their usual prey.
“This is entirely man's fault… It's like the wolves have been left homeless, this is why they are getting out of the woods.”
Villager plays dead after tiger pins him down
Shocking footage emerged last year of an Indian man amazingly surviving a tiger attack by playing dead as it pinned him down in the dirt.
The beast leapt out of a hedge in Bhandara, Maharashtra, forcing villagers to run for their lives before pouncing on its victim.
The heart-stopping video shows the man lying motionless for several seconds, as onlookers scream and throw stones at the tiger to scare it off.
As it finally scarpers, the man sits up, while the terrified mob descend to check on his wounds.
Sharing the video online, Parveen Kaswan, a forest service officer, said: "You want to see how does a narrow escape looks like in case of encounter with a tiger.
"Tiger was cornered by the crowd. But fortunately end was fine for both man and tiger."
At least three people were said to have been injured during the rampage.
*MIRROR
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