Did a Russian man save a drowning bear from Lake Tahoe? Viral post debunked

A story of a drowning bear and its rescue at Lake Tahoe by a Russian man named Ivan Stepanov has gone viral on social media.

The viral claims suggest that the animal was 375 pounds and was sedated after it was seen wandering in a residential neighborhood. The trending story has been paired with the pictures of a man holding a drowning black bear and supposedly guiding it back to safety. One of the Facebook posts from the Historical Pictures group highlighted: 

“The crowd stood helpless on the shore… until a man visiting from Russia, Ivan Stepanov, ripped off his shoes and dove in.” 

The story is only partially correct, with pictures from an incident in 2008. Furthermore, Snopes, a reliable fact-checking website, has confirmed that no Russian man named Ivan Stepanov saved a black bear from drowning.

Multiple viral posts also mentioned Tallac Bridge over Lake Tahoe, but Snopes confirmed no such bridge exists. 

The fact-checking site revealed that the pictures are authentic, and a person did save a drowning bear more than a decade ago. At the same time, a separate story of Russian fishermen saving bear cubs surfaced in 2019, according to Men's Journal.

A person named Ruslan Lukanin shared the video of the rescue with the Daily Mail and said: 

“They had swum [across the lake] with their mother, but she overestimated her strength and swam away. The cubs began to sink. We picked them up and dragged them to the island to which their mother had swum.” 

He added: 

“It was dangerous, of course. But they are living creatures. We couldn’t just look the other way.” 

A Florida man saved a drowning bear in 2008, after it tried swimming despite being tranquillized

Adam Warwick, the wildlife commission biologist who risked his life to save a 181 kg bear from drowning. pic.twitter.com/thNZzf0X3R

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 15, 2025

More than 17 years ago, multiple outlets reported the miraculous rescue of a 375-pound wild animal from the Gulf of Mexico. According to CBS News, the authorities said a black bear was spotted in a residential neighborhood, seemingly looking for food. He was reportedly roaming near Alligator Point, Florida. 

After the officials hit it with a tranquilizer dart, the bear fled and jumped into the Gulf of Mexico. However, the animal experienced sedative effects while swimming.

Fortunately, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologist named Adam Warwick, who was 25 yards offshore, jumped to keep the bear floating. 

He recounted on The Early Show in 2008: 

“I just wanted to try to get in front of him and keep him from swimming out there and drowning.” 

Warwick claimed that the bear had already begun swimming, but he jumped in to stop the animal. He said: 

“I took off my shirt and shoes, jumped in the water and swam in the direction to head him off and keep him from going into deeper water. Once I did that, I got in front of him, tried to create some splashing and some commotion and tried to get him to go back into shore.” 

Warwick admitted that he was scared of being attacked by the bear. The biologist shared: 

“The scariest part was probably when he decided -- he started looking at me as if he wanted to climb up on me to keep from drowning and, at one point, he reared up on his hind legs, so I'm looking at a six-and-a-half-foot tall bear.” 

Adam Warwick concluded: 

“Instead of lunging forward, he fell straight back and was submerged for a couple of seconds and, that's kinda when I moved in."

Per CBS News, FWC revealed that Warwick kept one hand under the drowning bear and the other around its neck to keep its head above water.

They weren’t too deep inside the lake, and the biologist got the animal back to shore, while remaining uninjured except for a scratch on his foot from the bear.