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Real-life Mowgli girl speaks out 10 years after she was found living with her loyal dog in bear-infested Siberian forest
The brave girl slept on a bed of long grass and survived on wild berries
A GIRL has spoken out 10 years after she was rescued from a bear-infested Siberian forest where she was stranded for two weeks.
Karina Chikitova was just four when she was found clinging to her puppy Naida for warmth after getting lost in the remote Russian woods, somehow surviving on a diet of wild berries.
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She has now shared her miraculous story on Russian state TV, claiming she doesn't remember anything from the harrowing ordeal.
Karina, now 14, said in an interview on Let Them Speak: “This is my dog Naida. She was with me in the forest, but I no longer remember how I played with her, [how she saved me]."
Her rescuer Artyom Borisov said: “She was sitting deep in deep grass, completely silent.
“I didn’t actually notice her. She saw me and stretched her arms forward.
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“I picked her up, she was so tiny, so light, like fluff.
"She didn’t have shoes on. Her face, legs and arms were bitten to blood (by mosquitos).
“She was dead scared. Straight away she asked for water and food, and burst into tears."
When Karina was reunited with the dog, her first words to her loyal pet were: ";Why did you leave me?"
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The dog's action in finding her way back to the family's village almost certainly saved the child's life by giving rescuers confidence she was still alive.
Karina is from the native Siberian Evenks ethnic group.
In 2014, the then infant child followed her father into the dangerous forest, but he did not realise she had trailed him.
Her dog waited by her side for nine nights before leaving her to get help.
It was revealed that the teen's earliest memory isn't until three years after she was rescued when she was seven.
It has been suggested that Karina has blanked out what would have been a deeply traumatic situation.
She has been described as a real-life Mowgli girl, with the presenter going as far as calling the survivor a "star".
A monument has been built to the girl shortly after she was found in the regional capital Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city.
But Karina commented in the interview that she doesn't like the attention she gets from her experience.
Karina also revealed that she now has ambitions of becoming a doctor, which was met with a thunderous applause from the audience.
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A popular children’s book has been written about the girl, and a major film was also released about the event, called Karina.
She won a Mini Miss beauty pageant, and was accepted into the world's northernmost professional ballet school.
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