“In general, we thought that there were no bears in our Bayandaevsky district... But, as it turned out later, they set traps and bait - the bear was through the roof. But in theory, this area is not particularly special, because among the trees there, priority goes to foliage and dwarf birch. That is, he has nothing to do there,” says Anton Grudin, a hunter from the Irkutsk region, in a conversation with the BBC. The region ranks fourth in Russia in terms of the number of these animals.
Last weekend alone, at least three people were killed by bears, and according to TASS information as of September 23, since the beginning of the year, bears have killed 17 people. In total, according to the latest data as of September 4, there were at least 20 attacks.
The most famous tragedy occurred in August: in Altai, a bear pulled a tourist out of a tent, dragged her into the forest, gnawed her limbs and buried her remains.
Animals come out to people throughout Siberia, in the Magadan, Novgorod regions and Kamchatka. Bears were even seen at the Rosa Khutor resort in Sochi. This is being actively discussed on social networks.
In some places, bears wander through residential villages; in some places, animals can be scared away by shouting. In the Irkutsk region, because of bears, a high alert regime was introduced and all school health days that were planned to be held in nature were canceled. Popular tourist routes have been closed in some areas and national parks of the region. A curfew was introduced in the urban settlement of the Irkutsk region of Baikalsk, in the Sobolevsky district and the village of Palana in the Kamchatka Territory, as well as in the Turochaksky district of Altai.
A hunter from the Irkutsk region, Oleg Pinaykin, also confirmed to the BBC that this year bears began to come out to people much more often. If in previous years hunters saw a maximum of one or two bears per season, says Pinaykin, now they see four or five of them every week.
The reactions of ordinary people and officials to what is happening are different. The Ministry of Natural Resources claims that the situation is within normal limits. According to the agency, an average of 20–30 bear attacks on people are recorded in Russia per year.
The Ministry of Natural Resources believes that the feeling of “invasion” is caused only by how quickly videos, photographs and messages about an encounter with a bear spread across the Internet. Indeed, the number of reports in the media and social networks about bear attacks on people in the summer of 2026 doubled compared to the summer of 2025.
The behavior of animals is affected by climate change: the average annual temperature in Siberia is rising. In the same year, animals come out to populated areas due to a poor harvest of berries and nuts. The Ministry of Natural Resources noted that in the Siberian Federal District there was a crop failure of everything that bears eat, including high-calorie pine nuts and hazels. There were few berries and mushrooms. “That is, practically the bear remains unfed during the winter,” the department summed up.
“There are fewer and fewer full-time hunters, less and less logging equipment, because these export businesses have all closed, and there are fewer and fewer foresters. Accordingly, the bears are becoming less and less worried. Previously, there were full-time hunters. They always hollowed out the bear and tried to clear areas of it so that it would not crush the young animals and would not pose a threat to the hunters. Now this has practically disappeared,” explains Grudin.
Valery Kuzenkov, an expert at the State Duma Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, also spoke to 72.ru about the fact that the hunting industry in Russia is in decline and there are not enough competent hunting specialists. For example, the number of animals is often kept only on paper, Kuzenkov emphasized.
The resolution of the international scientific and practical conference of game biologists, organized by the Irkutsk State Agrarian University in 2025, speaks of a “superficial attitude” to the problems of hunters, and that among the officials responsible for hunting there are many people who do not have systemic knowledge in the field of protection and use of hunting resources. The field of higher education training “Hunting Science” does not exist, and the scientific specialty “Animal Breeding and Game Science” has been eliminated, the conference participants noted.
To cope with the problem, authorities are issuing permits to shoot bears. Each region decides independently how many animals can be destroyed. For example, as the BBC calculated, as of September 23, in the Altai Republic since July, when bears are slowly beginning to prepare for hibernation, at least 246 bears have been given permission to kill. In 2025, during the same period, shooting permits were issued for just over 20 individuals.
Some environmentalists are concerned that shooting will endanger the population of these animals, but in this case there is nothing to fear: since 1990, the number of bears in Russia has increased by 2.3 times. This growth, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, is due, among other things, to the fact that due to human activity there is more garbage and animals easily find food.
The problem is different: hunters are not eager to go after a bear. Only 10–30% of the permitted shooting limit is used annually. Hunting this animal now is an expensive, difficult and unprofitable undertaking. This was confirmed by the hunters the BBC spoke to.
Interest disappeared about ten years ago, says Oleg Pinaykin, because it became more difficult to sell bears to neighboring China and South Korea. China bought a lot of bear paws, and South Korea bought bile, Yuri Vashukevich, associate professor of the Department of Game Science and Bioecology at IrSAU, explained to Ircity. Often this mining took place illegally. However, over the years, poachers have become better dealt with in Russia, and legislation regulating this trade has been tightened in both countries. In addition, many scammers have appeared on the bile market, and buyers have ceased to trust Russian sellers.
In Russia, these parts of the bear are not in demand, and the skin and meat can only serve as trophies, and not as a source of good income. Curing the skin is too expensive, and not everyone likes the taste of the meat and, more importantly, it can often be contaminated, and therefore requires additional expenses to test it in the laboratory.
As a result, demand for bear products is at a historical low. Trophy hunting has practically disappeared and accounts for less than 1% of total production.
Another problem is that the permit to shoot one bear is valid for 30 calendar days. They did this to fight poachers, but BBC interlocutors say that this time is not enough to catch an animal, even now, when the animals come to populated areas - shooting is prohibited there.
Anyone who wants to hunt a bear needs to find time for hunting, purchase everything necessary for it, including fuel, and submit an application to the owner of the hunting grounds - a state or private legal entity. The application is reviewed within five days. But often it doesn’t even come to that, hunters say. These permits are quickly taken away, often with the help of bribes or acquaintances, because the document gives the right to carry rifled, not smooth-bore weapons. The rifle has a longer range, which attracts not only keen hunters, but also poachers. Such people don’t even go bear hunting.
“The moment we start issuing permits no longer exists. They go their separate ways. A simple hunter cannot take bear papers into public lands. And those organizations, hunting societies that take them, as a rule, make a profit of probably 500 percent on them. They sell licenses for 15 or 20 thousand, depending on what your appetite is,” another Irkutsk hunter, Alexander Likholetov, tells the BBC. If the bear hunting season lasts seven months, then you have to pay for each month.
Likholetov himself met the bear not long ago, on September 21: “We were returning from hunting, and he was walking along the road. I was unarmed, on an ATV, so I preferred to wait until the beast left.”
“In publicly accessible lands, the cost of a permit is 3 thousand rubles, plus 650 rubles for issuing a permit. Previously, they charged 3 thousand for the whole season. In private lands the price reaches 50 thousand. As a result, often even gasoline does not pay for itself. Nobody wants to buy a bear permit for a month for 50 thousand. It’s not a fact that you’ll get a bear,” explains Oleg Pinaykin.
For example, in the area where Anton Grudin hunts, only three bear licenses are valid and only for the traditional hunting season for this animal - in the spring. After leaving the den, the bear is easier to detect by its tracks, and the skin, meat and fat are valued higher in quality. According to Grudin, at least 90 calendar days for a bear hunt would be much more profitable than 30.
