Animal activists in Russia's Siberian city of Yakutsk rescued a dog, who stood guard to the body of his pregnant canine friend for two weeks as temperatures dropped to -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit).

A Siberian stray dog stayed beside his dead friend, who was presumably poisoned. After the story was posted online, Yakutian animal lovers started bringing food to the animal and later decided to take him to a shelter fearing that he may die of cold.

The dog was nicknamed "Yakutian Hachiko" after a loyal Japanese dog remembered for waiting for his dead owner at a train station for seven years.

"After two hours of hard work we finally got the dog. We could do faster, but were afraid to cause emotional distress. He ran away from us, but not for long, he always returned back to his dead friend," the man who took the dog wrote on a local forum.

"We had to touch the dead dog to make him return. We stroke her, wiping the snow away. The dog ran up at once, and started licking the dead body," he said.

The dog currently stays in an animal shelter as his future owner is being searched for.