This footage shows the moment would-be rescuers dash for cover after an angry sloth bear charges them as they free it from a 35-foot deep dry well.
An angry sloth bear was filmed charging at rescuers after they freed the rare animal from a deep, dry well.
Forest Department officials in Maharashtra, located in western India, were asked to respond after the animal fell into the hole, SWNS reported.
Rescuers lowered a tree log into the well so the animal could escape.
“Our rescue team rushed to the area and saw that a large crowd of onlookers had gathered around the well,” ranger Amol Gawner of the Amravati Division Rapid Rescue Unit told SWNS.
“Our rescue team rushed to the area and saw that a large crowd of onlookers had gathered around the well. It took some time to clear the crowd,” he added. “After the crowd was cleared, we initially lowered a ladder into the well to enable the bear to climb out on its own. However, the agitated and tired bear did not do so.”
He noted, “Then, we changed our approach and lowered a tree trunk into the well.”
The agitated bear can then be seen running at several rescuers near the well, forcing them to run
"This bear species is either killed for their gallbladder or, until recently, used in street exhibitions. Following a concerted campaign to stop the use of Sloth Bears in roadside dance shows, this spectacle has now been largely eliminated in India with the animals shifted to rescue centers," adds the WWF.