An 80-year-old shepherd has survived falling from a cliff after fighting with a bear.

Yusuf Alchagirov had initially tried to stab the bear when it approached him in a raspberry field in Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia’s North Caucasus mountains, but the animal knocked the knife out of his hand before pushing him over the cliff-edge.

He only suffered four broken ribs, a few bite marks and some bruises after his escapade, and was able to walk away from the foot of the cliff where he landed, telling a local VGTRK television news reporter:

“I got off easy. It’d have killed me if I’d chickened out”

His family have baked him three traditional pies to celebrate his manly survival.