Safari guide records rare fight between tiger, mother bear

March 2 (UPI) -- A safari guide at an Indian national park captured rare footage of a violent confrontation between a tiger and the bear that managed to fight it off.

Akshay Kumar, the chief naturalist at Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge in Maharashtra's Tadoba National Park, said he was leading a safari group Wednesday when he and his guests saw the territorial tiger get out of a body to watcher to attack a mother sloth bear and her cub.

The video shows the mother bear grappling with the tiger to keep it a safe distance from her cub.

"The tiger attacked the bear more than five minutes. It went after the sloth bear but she kept charging in order to protect her cub," Kumar told NDTV. "It went on for 15 minutes. The tiger was roaring. It was a severe fight."

Kumar said the fight ended in a stalemate, with both animals walking away alive but with injuries.

He said the attacking tiger is a 7-year-old male previously dubbed Matkasur by researchers.