Experts explained reason they believe woman was eaten alive by bear whilst on phone to her mum

Experts shared what they believe had led a bear to attack and eat a 19-year-old woman and her stepfather while they were out on a hike.

Olga Moskalyova had been out on a hike with her stepdad Igor Tsyganenkov in August 2011, visiting a river by the village Termalniy in eastern Siberia, Russia.

The pair had set out to pick up a fishing rod which someone else had left there, but while out they encountered a brown bear, which attacked them, first killing Igor.

Olga had attempted to flee, but the bear had caught up with her and brought her to the ground. The 19-year-old had phoned her mother, who heard her shouting: "Mum, the bear is eating me! Mum, it's such agony. Mum, help!"

At first her mum Tatiana had assumed that her daughter was playing a joke, but then started to hear the bear chewing and growling in the background of the call.

"I heard the real horror and pain in Olga's voice, and the sounds of a bear growling and chewing," she told the Daily Mail. "I could have died then and there from shock."

Tatiana contacted the authorities for help, but then she received another call from Olga, who told her: “Mum, the bears are back. She came back and brought her three babies. They're... eating me."

Brown bears mostly avoid humans unless provoked or startled, but mothers with cubs can be aggressive (Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP via Getty Images)

After the bears left her for dead, Olga called her mum one more time to say she wasn’t ‘hurting anymore’ and asked for forgiveness ‘for everything’ before adding: “I love you so much.”

Olga was soon found dead while the mother bear feasted on Igor’s body.

Theories on just what went down that day have flown around the internet and on the Man Eaters true crime podcast, they rounded up various ‘experts’ opinions on just why the bear ‘ate’ the pair.

These ranged from the bears becoming defensive after being frightened by the two humans, especially with it being a mother and subs, all the way to them deliberately targeting them as prey, though this is unusual behaviour for brown bears, though Polar Bears do have a reputation for purposefully hunting humans.

One theory is that the bear may have been ‘spooked’ by Olga and Igor and therefore attacked them out of self-defence for her cubs. This seems likely as it’s well-known how territorial and protective mother bears can be.

The teenager was found dead. (Family handout)

Others however reckon the bear had an injury, preventing her from her usual hunting practice. So, Olga and her stepdad may have been targeted because they were a convenient prey, readily available and not perceived as a threat.

While another theory is that the bear had become ‘habituated’ to human contact. Overall, brown bears are unpredictable animals and will typically only attack if they feel threatened or surprised.

After the pair were found, emergency services called hunters to kill the mother bear and her cubs.

Just half an hour after the killings, Igor's brother, Andrei, appeared at the scene with police, finding the mother bear feasting on his body, with Olga's dead body also on the ground.