Russia's government is drawing up urgent measures to manage the country's brown bear population after at least 22 people were killed in attacks since the spring, with the issue spiralling out of control in some regions.
The latest attack, reported by state media, saw a 23-year-old man gathering berries killed by a bear this week in Kamchatka, in Russia's far east. It follows the death of a Russian woman in Siberia who was fatally mauled by a bear in her garden, amid a nationwide spate of killings that experts blame on climate change and human incompetence.
Government response
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev said: "It is clear that as the population grows, so too does the number of problems. Systemic measures are needed to ensure that humans and animals can coexist safely and to maintain the necessary balance. In this regard, the Russian government is currently preparing a series of priority measures."
The Kremlin said it would consider lifting hunting quotas for brown bears, establishing regional population limits, granting local authorities additional powers to control their numbers, and identifying regions that need more funding to address the problem.
Rising bear population
The population of brown bears has more than doubled in the last three decades to 308,000, in part due to shorter and milder winters. According to experts cited in Russian media, bears have been forced to look further afield for food this year because an early and dry spring meant there was a lack of berries for them to feed on in September.
People are also guilty of leaving food waste out in the open where it attracts bears and of ignoring safety rules, the experts warned.
Criminal investigation
Investigators in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia - home to nearly 27,000 bears, according to environment ministry data - said last week that they had opened a criminal case into the local environment ministry, accusing it of negligence that led to the deaths of seven people in September alone.
The federal environment ministry has sought to play down the spate of attacks, saying that around 20 to 30 cases of bear attacks have been recorded annually in recent years, but that social media and smartphones are making such attacks seem more widespread.
Russia is home to three main bear species: the Brown Bear (Ursus arctos), with over half of the global population residing across its forests, Siberia, and the Far East; the Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) found in the Russian Arctic; and the Asian Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus ussuricus), which is restricted to the Russian Far East.
