Fact Check: Photos claiming to show Russian man saving drowning bear in Lake Tahoe tell a different story

Yahoo

20 hours ago

Claim:
Online photographs show Ivan Stepanov, a Russian tourist, saving a drowning bear beneath the Tallac Bridge in South Lake Tahoe.
Rating:
A seemingly heartwarming story of an animal rescue spread like wildfire across social media in August 2025. The story, accompanied by photos in each post, was of a Russian tourist named Ivan Stepanov, who dove into frigid waters to rescue a sedated, drowning bear beneath the Tallac Bridge in South Lake Tahoe. According to the story, Stepanov said when asked why he risked his life, "In my country, we say a man's strength is measured by who he chooses to protect—even if it has claws."
A Facebook post (archived) of the story got nearly 400,000 reactions in just a couple of days. Another Facebook post (archived) of the same story got 16,000 reactions. An Instagram post (archived) sharing the story got over 40,000 likes. Several readers reached out to Snopes to ask if it was true and many others searched the site for the story.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122254356302208589&set=a.122221791602208589&type=3&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=ZyC5lKQq8FJwtV23&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F1RExFqesry%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#
The story as told in the Facebook posts was false. The photos were real, though, and from a real drowning bear rescue by an American man in Florida.
A Google search for "Ivan Stepanov bear" yielded no legitimate news outlets covering the rescue, just social media posts spreading the story. A reverse image search (archived) for the photo attached to the story, however, returned 17-year-old news articles about a man who rescued a bear in Florida.
The rescue, according to The Gainesville Sun, Tampa Bay Times and Gulf Breeze News, was the work of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Adam Warwick in 2008. After the bear wandered too close to people's houses, state wildlife officials shot it with a tranquilizer gun so they could move it, but the bear reacted by paddling out into the Gulf of Mexico. Warwick, believing he had only a few minutes before the tranquilizer dart took effect and the bear would drown, jumped into the water and first tried to splash it to encourage it to go back to shore. But that didn't work, so Warwick got behind the bear, hugged it and tried swimming it to shore.
"The bear was heavy. Warwick used the animal's buoyancy to help him haul it to shore," the Tampa Bay Times wrote. "The animal was awake but could barely move. The bear tried to help out with a little doped-up paddling of its own."
According to the Times, Warwick and a colleague drove the bear three hours east to Osceola National Forest the next morning. Two weeks later, the bear wandered into another residential area and Warwick found it a home at Hardee County Animal Refuge to save it from being euthanized, The Gainesville Sun reported at the time.
Six years later, in 2014, the rescue got some national attention with stories from Game & Fish Magazine and the Financial Times.
The version with "Ivan Stepanov" wasn't a real bear rescue shared with the wrong photo, either. Not only was there no real reporting of the tale, it also happened at a place that doesn't exist.
While there is a Tallac area around South Lake Tahoe, there is no Tallac Bridge, even where the road crosses Tallac Creek. In fact, there are no bridges that cross Lake Tahoe.
"Daring Rescue: FWC Biologist Saves Drowning Bear from Gulf." Gulf Breeze News - Your Community Newspaper, Gulf Breeze News, 3 July 2008, news.gulfbreezenews.com/articles/daring-rescue-fwc-biologist-saves-drowning-bear-from-gulf/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
Garry, Stephanie. "Biologist Pulls Doped Bear from Gulf." Tampa Bay Times, 10 July 2008, www.tampabay.com/archive/2008/06/29/biologist-pulls-doped-bear-from-gulf/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
Hanson, Debbie. "Florida FWC Biologist Makes Heroic Black Bear Rescue - Game & Fish." Game & Fish, Game & Fish, 20 Mar. 2014, www.gameandfishmag.com/editorial/black-bear-rescue/193659. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
"Ivan Stepanov Bear - Google Search." Google.com, www.google.com/search?q=ivan+stepanov+bear&sca_esv=026ca5c1e8389fd9&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A%2Ccd_max%3A8%2F15%2F2025&tbm=. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
"Lake Tahoe - Google Maps." Google Maps, maps.app.goo.gl/NtXvx443WRkK9HKZ7. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
The Associated Press. "Rescued 375-Pound Black Bear Will Go to Hardee County Zoo." Gainesville Sun, 10 July 2025, www.gainesville.com/story/news/2008/07/10/rescued-375-pound-black-bear-will-go-to-hardee-county-zoo/31577784007/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.
van Gilder Cooke, Sonia. ""I Saved a Bear from Drowning."" Financial Times, Financial Times, 13 June 2014, www.ft.com/content/057ad0ac-f0fa-11e3-8f3d-00144feabdc0. Accessed 15 Aug. 2025.