Perilous Times
Hungry bears digging up graves, eating corpses
* From correspondents in Moscow
* From: AP
* October 29, 2010 6:34AM
FAMISHED bears in northern Russia have resorted to digging up graves in
cemeteries - and reportedly eating at least one body - after a
scorching summer destroyed their natural food sources of forest berries
and mushrooms, officials said today.
The brown bears' grisly habit is forcing locals in the Arctic Circle
region of Komi to mount 24-hour patrols, protecting their families and
livestock with the concern that the bears might get a taste for fresher
human flesh, said Pyotr Lobanov, a regional spokesman for the
Emergencies Ministry.
Last summer was Russia's hottest on record, with raging forest fires
and droughts wiping out woodland and crops, forcing the bears to forage
closer and closer to human settlements as the winter hibernation period
approaches.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported that one body was devoured
in the village of Verkhnyaya Chova over the weekend.
Two visitors to the cemetery shrieked at the shocking sight of the
animal tearing into half-decomposed flesh, scaring the bear away, the
paper reported.
Domestic pets, goats and cattle have all fallen prey to the bears since
the summer, prompting unsightly fences to go up around farmland and
more thoughtful disposal of garbage.
And the signs are that locals are right to be more diligent: A man in
his 20s barely escaped with his life when he was mauled by an
aggressive bear in early September on the fringes of the regional
capital city, Syktyvkar, the main local news channel reported.
Komi, about the size of California with the climate of Alaska, carries
the nickname "Bear's Corner" because, covered 70 per cent by coniferous
Taiga woodland, it is ideal bear habitat.
Encounters with bears in urban areas are not common in the sparsely
populated region, but becoming more frequent, officials say.
"This year is far worse than others," Mr Lobanov said. "But people in
the republic all know how to deal with this and know what can happen,"
he said.
Attacks on people by some of Russia's 140,000 bears are on the rise
nationwide, and concentrated in the country's Far East, where rampant
fish poaching often forces the bears to seek other sources of food,
such as garbage.
In the most notorious incident, in 2008 a pack of up to 30 Kamchatka
bears - which are similar to grizzlies - prowled around two mines of a
local platinum mining company where they killed the two guards and laid
siege to workers inside company premises.
Campers shot dead a bear that attacked and killed their friend off the
Far East coast in 2007.
Read more:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/hungry-bears-digging-up-graves/story-e6frfku0-1225944960976#ixzz13hF0Ldgi