In Kamchatka, the surviving bears will be counted in the spring after a year of scarcity

The Kamchatka Krai authorities plan to count the bears near the Avacha agglomeration in the spring – the cities of Elizovo, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Vilyuchinsk and other nearby settlements – to determine how many predators need to be shot.

"We'll see how many bears there are, because spring is the best time. If there are a large number of bears, work will be carried out with hunting users who are in the lands in the adjacent territories," said Deputy Chairman of the Krai Government Roman Vasilevsky.

A decision will be made in the future: either to increase the harvest of animals or to take other regulatory measures.
Let us recall that this year the settlements of the Krai experienced an unprecedented invasion of bears. They were driven to the cities and villages by a lack of food. The year was not rich in fish and there was a poor harvest of pine cones, berries and mushrooms. In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a high alert regime was introduced from September 27 to October 11. After the situation with predators had relatively normalized, it was lifted. But the animals still periodically visited residential areas of the regional center, and operatives went out to shoot dangerous animals.
The authorities did not provide official statistics on how many animals posing a danger to people were shot this year. But the number clearly exceeded 300 predators.

As a result of bear attacks in the region, two people died. On July 25, in the forest near the settlement of Termalny in the Yelizovsky district, a female bear mauled a 38-year-old man. On December 9, near the shift settlement of Ozernovsky, a 46-year-old deputy general director of a gold mining company died.

There are also two officially registered cases of attacks, when men miraculously managed to fight off the animals. A summer resident in the Yelizovsky district received serious injuries and was hospitalized. A skier in the Milkovsky District escaped with deep wounds on his arm.

A fatal attack in December was caused by a bear's fangs. Many bears, having failed to accumulate fat reserves during the hungry year, did not hibernate. Residents of Kamchatka periodically post videos of bears running near populated areas online.

Today, information appeared on social networks that a hungry bear had torn apart dogs in the yard of a house in Northern Koryaks, Yelizovsky District. The owners drove the animal away with a flare, a shovel, and a chainsaw. The old bear was shot dead by gamekeepers who arrived at the scene in the morning. But the severely injured dogs may not survive.

Photo by Alexey Maslov (archive).