Deadly bear attacks are rattling Russian Siberia. Why now?

Telegram / @krasnoyarsk_smi & Telegram / @irkutsk_smi

When Sofa, 28, was sent a video of a bear in the yard of her former home in central Siberia, it made her sit up. The threat they posed had once seemed distant.

“We were never afraid to go outside, even at night,” she told CNN. A bear entering the yard was something she “couldn’t even imagine.”

The unexpected sighting comes at a time when bear attacks are on the rise, with at least 16 fatal encounters across Russia in September, according to a CNN tally of Russian media reports.

The country typically records 20 to 30 attacks on people annually, its Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told state news agency TASS.

This year, bears ventured into populated areas in more than 40 Russian regions, TASS reported. But it is central Siberia’s huge Krasnoyarsk region that has seen the highest death toll, with seven people killed.

Last week, a bear fatally mauled a 51-year-old woman as she stepped out of her house there. Two days earlier, a security guard was killed in a bear attack at a truck parking lot in a forestry area. Earlier in September, two elderly women who had separately gone missing while out picking mushrooms were found dead, with injuries consistent with a bear attack.

Fatal encounters were also reported in other Siberian regions. In neighboring Tuva, the father of Russian NHL player Andrei Kuzmenko was killed at the end of September after being attacked by a bear during a fishing trip. He was taken to a hospital with serious facial injuries but died shortly afterward, according to TASS.

And in August, in the popular tourist spot of Altai, in southern Siberia, a bear tore open a tent and dragged a 29-year-old woman into the forest and killed her.

Irina Yarinskaya/AFP/Getty Images

Sergey Kolchin, a zoologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Far Eastern Branch who specializes in large carnivores, said attacks on average had not become more frequent, but there had been a shift in certain Siberian regions this year, particularly Krasnoyarsk.

Konstantin Tirronen, head of zoology at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Karelian Research Center, offered a slightly different assessment, saying attacks this year were above the annual average, though concentrated in specific regions.

Both linked the situation to an unusually poor autumn crop of pine nuts and berries. Kolchin also cited extensive wildfires that had deprived some bears of their habitat as a compounding effect.

“Trying to make up for food shortages, bears are increasingly venturing into areas used by people, where encounters are inevitable,” he told CNN.

Wolf Kamuy Co., Ltd.

Japan is using AI, drones and wolf robots to keep bears at bay

Tirronen added that bears intensify their search for food as they build up fat reserves for winter hibernation. “If there is little food in the wild, they will look for it anywhere they can,” he explained.

He also suggested that accessible food waste and the expansion of extractive industries into previously remote wildlife habitats were factors bringing bears and people into closer contact.

“We are creating attractive food sources that draw them in,” Tirronen said. “The responsibility here lies with people, not with bears.”

Dmitry Sergeev, a natural resources official in Khakassia, in southern Siberia, called the rise “abnormal.”

“The bear population is above normal levels. Stronger animals are displacing weaker ones. There is not enough room for them, so they are moving closer to people,” he told Russian pro-Kremlin broadcaster REN TV.

But both experts CNN spoke with cautioned against linking increased attacks to a growing bear population, citing a lack of reliable population estimates. Bears’ solitary nature and winter hibernation make them difficult to count, Tirronen explained.

Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

Over the past two months, authorities in at least 10 regions across Siberia and the Russian Far East have issued warnings to residents over increased bear activity.

Nighttime curfews were also imposed in parts of Altai and in Baikalsk, in the Irkutsk region. Meanwhile, officials in Krasnoyarsk have closed the Krasnoyarsk Pillars National Park and the Torgashinsky Ridge Staircase, a popular hiking route.

Regional authorities have also deployed mobile hunting teams and offered cash rewards for killing bears. In the Krasnoyarsk region, where most of the fatal attacks have occurred, rewards of more than 35,000 roubles (around $420) were announced.

Altai’s natural resources ministry said more than 50 bears were killed following the tourist’s death in August, with permits issued to cull another 157. Krasnoyarsk’s natural resources ministry said earlier this month that more than 180 “potentially problematic animals” had been killed.

This Japanese artisan turns bear-scarred trees into surfboards and skateboards

Killing aggressive bears in populated areas is a necessary emergency measure, Kolchin said. But a more widespread cull would not reduce incidents in the long term, he argued, because it fails to address their root cause: unsecured food waste.

“Other bears will take the place of those killed near rubbish dumps,” he said. “Widespread, indiscriminate shooting of bears amid the current hysteria will leave wounded animals that can be deadly.”

According to Kolchin, wounded bears struggle to survive in the wild and are more likely to attack people in self-defense. Animals that associate their injuries with humans, he said, can also become more aggressive toward people.

Instead, he said, the solution lies in keeping waste out of reach, teaching people how to behave around wildlife and using deterrents such as electric fencing to avoid encounters in the future.

电报 / @krasnoyarsk_smi 和电报 / @irkutsk_smi

28岁的索法收到一段视频，视频中一只熊出现在她位于西伯利亚中部的老家院子里，这让她感到震惊。她以前一直觉得熊的威胁离自己很远。

她告诉CNN：“我们从来不害怕出门，即使是晚上。” 她说，熊闯入院子是她“想都不敢想”的事情。

此次意外发现熊的事件正值熊袭击事件频发之际，据美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）统计俄罗斯媒体报道，9 月份俄罗斯境内至少发生了 16 起致命的熊袭击事件。

该国自然资源与环境部告诉塔斯社，该国每年通常记录到 20 至 30 起针对人的袭击事件。

据塔斯社报道，今年，熊闯入俄罗斯40多个地区的居民区。但死亡人数最多的是西伯利亚中部幅员辽阔的克拉斯诺亚尔斯克边疆区，已有7人丧生。

上周，一名51岁的妇女走出家门时被熊袭击身亡。两天前，一名保安在林区的一个卡车停车场遭到熊袭击身亡。9月初，两名分别在采蘑菇时失踪的老妇人被发现死亡，她们身上的伤痕与熊袭击相符。

西伯利亚其他地区也报告了致命的熊袭击事件。据塔斯社报道，在邻近的图瓦共和国，俄罗斯国家冰球联盟（NHL）球员安德烈·库兹缅科的父亲于9月底在一次钓鱼之旅中遭到熊袭击身亡。他被送往医院，面部伤势严重，但不久后便去世了。

8 月，在西伯利亚南部的热门旅游景点阿尔泰，一头熊撕开帐篷，将一名 29 岁女子拖入森林并将其杀死。

伊琳娜·亚林斯卡娅/法新社/盖蒂图片社

俄罗斯科学院远东分院专门研究大型食肉动物的动物学家谢尔盖·科尔钦表示，袭击事件平均而言并没有变得更加频繁，但今年西伯利亚某些地区，特别是克拉斯诺亚尔斯克地区，袭击事件发生了变化。

俄罗斯科学院卡累利阿研究中心动物学负责人康斯坦丁·蒂罗宁提出了略有不同的评估，他表示，今年的袭击事件高于年平均水平，但集中在特定地区。

两人都将这种情况归咎于秋季松子和浆果收成异常差。科尔钦还指出，大范围的野火夺去了部分熊的栖息地，加剧了这一问题。

“为了弥补食物短缺，熊越来越多地冒险进入人类活动区域，在那里与人类相遇是不可避免的，”他告诉 CNN。

Wolf Kamuy Co., Ltd.

日本正利用人工智能、无人机和狼机器人来驱赶熊。

蒂罗宁补充说，熊在为冬眠积蓄脂肪的过程中，会更加积极地寻找食物。“如果野外食物匮乏，它们就会不择手段地寻找食物，”他解释道。

他还指出，容易获取的食物垃圾以及采掘业向以前偏远的野生动物栖息地扩张，都是导致熊和人类接触更加密切的因素。

蒂罗宁说：“我们正在创造吸引它们的食物来源。责任在于人类，而不是熊。”

西伯利亚南部哈卡斯共和国自然资源官员德米特里·谢尔盖耶夫称这种上涨“不正常”。

“熊的数量已经超过正常水平。强壮的熊正在排挤较弱的熊。它们没有足够的生存空间，所以它们正在向人类居住地附近迁移，”他告诉俄罗斯亲克里姆林宫的电视台REN TV。

但CNN采访的两位专家都告诫不要将袭击事件的增加与熊的数量增长直接联系起来，理由是缺乏可靠的熊群数量估算数据。蒂罗宁解释说，熊的独居习性和冬眠习性使得熊的数量难以统计。

伊利亚·奈穆申/路透社

过去两个月里，西伯利亚和俄罗斯远东地区至少 10 个地区的有关部门已向居民发出警告，提醒他们注意熊的活动增多。

阿尔泰部分地区和伊尔库茨克州的贝加尔斯克市也实施了夜间宵禁。与此同时，克拉斯诺亚尔斯克官员关闭了克拉斯诺亚尔斯克石柱国家公园和托尔加申斯基山脊阶梯（一条热门徒步路线）。

地方当局还部署了流动狩猎队，并悬赏猎杀熊。在克拉斯诺亚尔斯克边疆区，致命袭击事件最为集中，该地区宣布的赏金超过3.5万卢布（约合420美元）。

阿尔泰自然资源部表示，自8月份一名游客死亡后，已有50多头熊被杀，并已发放许可证捕杀另外157头熊。克拉斯诺亚尔斯克自然资源部本月早些时候表示，已有180多头“可能造成问题的动物”被杀。

这位日本工匠将熊啃过的树木做成冲浪板和滑板。

科尔钦表示，在人口稠密地区猎杀具有攻击性的熊是必要的紧急措施。但他认为，更大规模的捕杀行动并不能从长远角度减少此类事件，因为它没有解决问题的根源：未妥善处理的食物垃圾。

他说：“其他熊会取代那些在垃圾场附近被杀的熊的位置。在当前这种恐慌情绪下，大范围、不加区分地射杀熊，会留下许多受伤的动物，这些动物可能致命。”

科尔钦表示，受伤的熊在野外生存艰难，更有可能出于自卫而攻击人类。他还说，如果动物将自己的伤势与人类联系起来，它们也可能对人类变得更具攻击性。

他表示，解决办法在于将垃圾放在野生动物够不到的地方，教导人们如何与野生动物相处，并使用电围栏等威慑手段来避免将来再次发生冲突。