Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

This is the sad moment a hungry mother bear drags a waste container several metres until it is under a street light, and then knocks it over to look inside for food for her cubs.

The incident, which was shared on social media on 25th June and received more than 3 million views in a short time, took place in the Sarialan region near mountain Uludag in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa.

The footage of the mother bear was captured on a phone camera by a group of people who witnessed the incident while passing by.

In the video, the mother bear first runs towards the stray dogs to scare them off and stop them from approaching, and then drags the waste container under the street lamp as she tries to overturn the container there.

The bear cubs watch their mothers as she wanders around the container apparently trying to figure out how to overturn it.

The video ends with the mother bear knocking over the container to get at the rubbish inside, and the people behind the camera praising the bear.

While most netizens commented on how self-sacrificing the mother bear is, one netizen argued that this is quite normal and commented: “Bears wake up from hibernation at this time of year and are very hungry.

“She has to find food somehow. When they cannot find it in nature, they look at the containers close to the settlements in this way.

“There is nothing to romanticize the event in this video. This is their nature. ”