This is the moment a fearless guard dog took on a giant polar bear more than twice its size and won by scaring it away.
The huge bear approached the working dog, who is used to pull sleds through the snow in Churchill, Canada.
But rather than running away in fear, the determined dog stood its ground by baring its teeth and growling at the polar animal in a startled frenzy.
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The curious polar bear approaches the guard dog, who is on a chain, and seems to want to make acquaintances with the smaller animal
But sensing danger, the dog stands up to the huge bear and goes into a startled frenzy in a bid to scare it away
The dog, whose job it is to pull sleds through the snow in Churchill, Canada, continues to try and scare off the animal
The curious bear seemed to approach the dog eager to make friends with the smaller animal.
But eventually the bear, who is considerably larger than the dog, was forced to make a retreat and trudge away into the distance from the fiery animal.
The incredible moment was captured on camera by photographer Alberto Panizza while he was visiting ɱaпitoba in Canada earlier this month.
Despite their differences in size, the dog continues to stand its ground rather than running away from the bear in fear
Dog scares off polar bear
Dog scares off polar bear
The dog’s owner claims that he breeds the strongest dogs in the world and they someᴛι̇ɱes do throw themselves at the bears to scare them off
He revealed that the fearless dog was also chained up to stop it from escaping and went into survival mode when he saw the bear approaching.
The 39-year-old also said that the dog’s owner, a local breeder, claims his pets are the strongest in the world.
Mr Panizza, from Parma in Italy, said: ‘The dogs live not far from a town where polar bears often pass through.
Rather than stay and face the frenzied dog, the polar bear is forced to make a retreat and trudges away into the distance
The moment the dog took on the bear was captured on camera by Italian photographer Alberto Panizza, who visited Canada last month
‘This one seemed to be curious and even though much bigger it was eager to make acquaintances with the dogs.
‘Even if they are trained to fight bears, the dogs usually seem afraid.
‘But either due to their survival instinct, or pure madness, they someᴛι̇ɱes throw themselves at the wild giants like this one did.’