Claim:
A video authentically shows a Russian language-speaking man in a boat rescuing a bear cub clinging to a drifting tree trunk.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in November 2025 claimed a video showed a Russian man in a boat rescuing a bear cub clinging to a drifting tree trunk.
On or prior to Nov. 13, X user @Gabriele_Corno posted the clip with the caption, “Rescue of a bear cub clinging to a drifting tree trunk.” That user has since changed their account’s privacy settings so that only their followers can view their posts. A Google search result that captured the post’s information prior to the user protecting their posts indicated the video received at least 3 million views.
A reverse-image search for frames from the video located posts featuring the clip on Facebook (archived), Instagram, Threads (archived) and X (archived).
In short, the video showing the man in the boat rescuing a bear cub clinging to a drifting tree log was fake and created with artificial intelligence.
The same reverse-image search found an Oct. 20 posting of the video with around 9 million views on the Russian-language YouTube channel @pandavt. That earlier-posted version of the same clip featured inauthentic-sounding, English-language vocals.
The YouTube clip, captioned “Hold on baby, I’m with you,” displayed a text description with an automated credit to OpenAI, reading “Info from OpenAI.” That credit indicated a user generated the visuals and audio with the company’s Sora 2 text-to-video generation model, which released its new version on Sept. 30, 2025.
(@pandavt/YouTube)
The video displayed several signs of being AI-generated, including the fact that the man wears watches on both wrists, as well as the fact he somehow navigates his boat to accelerate and brake despite not reaching back far enough to control the motor.
Similar new AI videos of people helping animals
The same Russian-language YouTube channel hosted other AI-generated videos showing people interacting with bear cubs, tigers and other animals. Those fake clips also included inauthentic-sounding, English-language vocals.
Other YouTube channels featured popular videos also showing men saving bear cubs from tree limbs.
Sora 2 generates videos lasting up to 15 seconds for standard users, explaining why these videos lasted exactly that amount of time.
For further reading, we previously reported on an authentic drone video showing a bear chasing a man in a snowy wilderness. We also investigated whether a clip truly showed shoplifter detention cells inside a Walmart store.
