A BEAR emerged from its lair and mauled an eco-activist who ironically was trying to prove the beast had been forced out of its den.

The German protester was convinced the burrow in Poland’s Carpathian Mountains had been abandoned because of logging.

But as he and another campaigner from Wild Carpathians Initiative checked out the wooded area, they unwittingly disturbed a resting bear.

Images caught on camera set up to monitor the lair show the large brown bear poking its head out of the den before climbing out.

The activists – who expected the dugout to be empty – frantically tried to flee but the furry beast chased after them.

As they were pursued, the German activist tripped and was brutally savaged by the bear.

He was airlifted to hospital in a serious but stable condition.

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The images were shared on social media by Michael Gzowski, from Poland’s State Forests, who described the attack as “irony of fate”.

He said: “A camera trap captured a bear attacking an ecoactivist. He wanted to prove that the lair was empty because foresters had destroyed his habitat.

“Quite an irony of fate – pseudo-ecologists were attacking foresters, GOPR and policemen, and now these people are saving their lives.”

The Wild Carpathians Initiative has admitted its activists should not have disturbed the bear, which was preparing to hibernate.

It comes after two workers were savagely ripped apart by a bear in Siberia.

One of the men was left with an exposed skull after wrestling with the wild beast in a horror attack caught on camera.

Video shows the brown bear scale a fence and run through the snow to converted shipping container cabins where a group of people were gathered at a gas facility.

A man behind the camera shouted a warning to the workers: “Everybody run away!”

In a chilling moment, the witness later said: “[The bear] ate him.”