Dog Reportedly Found Living On Mount Kilimanjaro

From altitude sickness to severe weather conditions, scaling Africa's largest mountain is no small task. That might explain why tourists were surprised to find a healthy auburn dog living atop Mount Kilimanjaro's Uhuru Peak.

As reported by Tanzania's The Citizen, the tourists took a picture of the stray on a cell phone. Some locals claim it is the same dog found on the mountain a decade ago.

The Telegraph reports that the tourist who took the photo was Antoine le Galloudec, a French tourist, climbing the mountain with three colleagues.

"When the tourists showed us the picture of the dog we could not believe our eyes. How it survived in such freezing conditions and what it ate during that time remained a mystery to us," Abel Edward, marketing officer for Ahsante Tours, told The Citizen.

Mount Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania and is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, rising to 19,336 feet, according to Tanzania National Parks.

An estimated eight trekkers die on Mount Kilimanjaro each year out of the 30,000 attempts, reports mtkilimanjarologue.com Even more striking is that an estimated 12,000 people give up the climb each year.

This isn't the first time a dog has survived harsh conditions. Remember when Miracle May, a six-year-old poodle, endured a horrific fall after escaping from a bird attack?

Another shocking survival story happened in the aftermath of Japan's earthquake. During the harrowing rescue mission, a dog was spotted alive on a floating roof.