bear

Russian photographer Olga Barantseva captured these incredible shots of Russian family playing with a giant brown bear. The images look straight out of a fairytale, showing a softer side to the big predator. As part of an anti-hunting campaign, the extraordinary photos are meant to "show the natural harmony between humans and bears," according to Barantseva. The bear, named Stepan, weighs more than 1,400 pounds and stands at a height of over 7 feet, but he is completely docile and willing to pose with his human collaborators. Stepan was rescued from hunters as a cub by his owner, professional circus trainer Yury Panteleenko. The bear was raised to be people-friendly, and has played roles in over 20 Russian films.

@A_single_bear is an hilarious twitter account of a wild bear sharing his daily thoughts. As he often says, he's just "a bear," but his tweets are full of cultural references, philosophical musings and the latest in DIY innovations involving rabbit skeletons. It's so funny we can "bearly" stand it.

"Mom, Dad, I have a bear in my room"!

What do you call a bear without any teeth?

A gummy bear!

We apologize if that joke was hard to bear, we're bearly hanging in there this morning.

Well, today photoshop-battlers took on this photo of two bears scratching themselves, bear witness to this hilarity.