Hungry bears wound seven, kill one in Russia’s Far East this year

Failing to find enough food in their natural habitat, hungry bears are attacking Russia’s Far Eastern Primorye, where 18 incidents involving bears have been fixed this year, 14 of them in local settlements, a source from the regional administration’s hunting control department told TASS on Tuesday.

“All in all, more than 40 predators have been seen close to settlements. Eight people were injured, one of them died,” the source said.

The latest incident in which a bear attacked a pregnant woman on the outskirts of a local settlement didn’t end tragically, as the scared woman received only slight injuries.

Bears need to put on extra body fat ahead of winter hibernation. In search for food, they cover big distances often reaching local settlements where they can always find something to eat, the source explained.

According to the hunting control department, the number of bears in Primorye is rather high. Some 3,000 Himalayan black bears and 2,500 brown bears live in the region. The hunting limit in the hunting season of 2014-2015 has been 147 and 141 bears accordingly.

H.Z