Polar bear spray-painted with 'T-34' baffles Russia wildlife experts

Experts warned the stunt could affect the animal's ability to blend in with its surroundings and hunt for food.

An investigation is under way to determine exactly where in Arctic Russia the video was filmed.

The T-34 was a tank that played a vital role in the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two.

The footage was posted on Facebook by Sergey Kavry, a member of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) nature organisation, and then shared by local media.

Polar bear spray-painted with 'T-34' baffles Russia wildlife experts

I don't know how this could of been done without a tranquilizer gun. The numbers are straight and even so It looks like the bear must of been still. Except for the 4 if that is what it really is.

The T-34 is a Russian tank. The bear could of been marked in the region of Novaya Zemlya. Specialists had sedated some polar bears that crossed into populated areas. People in some communities in the Russian Arctic are upset with the bears for coming onto their turf.

Someone angry at the bears may have seen one passed out and decided to mark it. I don't care how pissed off I was at the bear, no way I am going to get that close, even if it is sleeping. Maybe Vodka had something to do with it.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I guess part of the '4' might of been rubbed off by the bear rolling around in the snow.

As to the actual point of spray painting that on the bear... who knows? Maybe its just some kind of Russian humour that doesn't translate well.

Maybe he is retired from the polar bear racing circuit.

That would be a sport, run on vodka.

when i first saw the article title, i thought a local tagging crew was behind it... but the lettering doesn't look like it.
They usually like to tag the most dangerous places, i see a polar bear as quite dangerous...

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Maybe they ran out of tags.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: LookingAtMars
As to the actual point of spray painting that on the bear... who knows? Maybe its just some kind of Russian humour that doesn't translate well.

A funnier joke would have been using White Paint. At least it wasn't a miniature crop circle shaved across that bears pelt (raises more questions than answers).

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

I guess part of the '4' might of been rubbed off by the bear

That would make sense. You can almost see a faint line that would be the rest of the 4.

Clearly it stands for "T"ag- 34. So there should be 33 other bears out there with similar taggings. Probably just some wild life group counting bears, I bet the paint is some kind of animal friendly junk.

a reply to: Guyfriday
Spray blood (always animal friendly for the predator).

a reply to: LookingAtMars

At my work, we have a major problem with nuisance bears.
They would break into the bunkhouses, offices, raid the kitchens, and cost thousands in damages almost nightly.
The environmental department tried to narrow down what bears where doing it here - there’s about 30-40 black bears every summer here.

They would capture the bear in a live trap - a big crate that would have bait at one end, when the bear walks in the door closes behind them.
Then the team would drive the bears 2 hours off the mine site, to the conservation area.

Well bears are smart, soon those bears dropped 200 km away, would be showing back up.

The team would spray paint a number on their butt to keep track of what bears where traveling back here.
There was one bear captured 6 times over the summer, drove out 200 km away, and would be back on site in less than 3 days.

If theres a food source, bears will never forgot that location.

a reply to: Macenroe82

There was one bear captured 6 times over the summer, drove out 200 km away, and would be back on site in less than 3 days.

Sounds like he was smarter than the average bear.

thousands in damages almost nightly

That is a lot of damage. Why not fence the site or the buildings to keep the bears out.

Oh my, this must be the Russians version of cow tipping.

Dyatlov Pass?

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Maybe the number is for tracking how many picnic baskets the bear and his little friend Booboo have absconded with?

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: LookingAtMars

At my work, we have a major problem with nuisance bears.
They would break into the bunkhouses, offices, raid the kitchens, and cost thousands in damages almost nightly.
The environmental department tried to narrow down what bears where doing it here - there’s about 30-40 black bears every summer here.

They would capture the bear in a live trap - a big crate that would have bait at one end, when the bear walks in the door closes behind them.
Then the team would drive the bears 2 hours off the mine site, to the conservation area.

Well bears are smart, soon those bears dropped 200 km away, would be showing back up.

The team would spray paint a number on their butt to keep track of what bears where traveling back here.
There was one bear captured 6 times over the summer, drove out 200 km away, and would be back on site in less than 3 days.

If theres a food source, bears will never forgot that location.

Haha that's so funny, I used to do the same thing with a horse I had when I was 14, I would ride it out to the far end of the pasture and turn around where it could then see the big barn where it knew the food is, and it would run so fast back toward it I could barely hang on.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Why do I have the feeling the words "hold my vodka" have something to do with this story?

Likely an aggressive bear they did not want to cap.They gave it a Mulligan.

that's some high-risk graffiti work.

a reply to: RoScoLaz5


He earned a lot of wilderness cred with that tag.

That is for sure.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

It's probably just a silly "tank".