Bears are increasingly entering populated areas due to food shortages and forest fires
Quick Look
This season, bears began to come out more often to populated areas in Siberia and the Far East due to a lack of food in the taiga, a poor harvest of berries and pine nuts, forest fires and attraction by unauthorized landfills, regional departments reported.
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Why It Matters
This season, bears more often go out into populated areas due to a lack of food in the taiga caused by the failure of the berry and pine nut harvest, forest fires and the attraction of unauthorized landfills.
This season, bears began to go out into populated areas more often due to a lack of food in the taiga and forest fires.
Bears migrate in search of food due to poor berry and pine nut harvests, as well as forest fires in neighboring regions.
Unauthorized landfills attract bears and encourage them to enter populated areas.
BARNAUL, September 23 – RIA Novosti. Bears began to come out to populated areas more often this season due to a lack of food in the taiga and forest fires, and they are also attracted to unauthorized landfills, the relevant departments in a number of regions of Siberia and the Far East told RIA Novosti.
The Department of Hunting and Fisheries of the Tomsk Region told RIA Novosti that this fall, signals about bears coming to people are coming from almost all areas. “The situation with bears reaching people in the region has worsened due to forest fires, as well as a shortage of berries and nuts in the taiga,” the regional department said.
A similar situation has developed in the Kemerovo region; bears are also coming there from other regions this year, Evgeniy Boyko, minister of forestry and hunting in the region, told RIA Novosti.
“This year, due to a poor harvest of berries, pine nuts, and forest fires in neighboring regions, bears are migrating in search of alternative food sources,” the source noted.
As RIA Novosti was told by the Forestry and Hunting Agency of the Sakhalin Region, bears are attracted to unauthorized landfills. Bears in the region have been active for several years now, this is due, among other things, to the weak supply of salmon fish, which are one of the main fattening foods for brown bears, as well as the failure of the dwarf pine seeds harvest.
“In most cases, exits are caused by anthropogenic factors: the availability of food and fish waste, open container sites and unauthorized dumps, food left in cemeteries, uncontrolled grazing of farm animals, feeding of animals,” the agency said.
Open Questions
- What specific measures do regional authorities plan to take to reduce conflicts between people and bears?
- How long will the current situation with increased bear activity near populated areas last?
- Is there any data on the number of recorded cases of bears coming out to people this season compared to previous years?
