Hungry Bears dig up graves in northern Russia.

I'd actually came across this last night on the RT (Russia Today) news channel.



And then i managed to find a related article, theyre obviously worried about the problem.

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 Thursday.

The brown bears' grisly habit is forcing locals in the Arctic Circle republic 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 Emergency Situations Ministry.

Source.

It just goes to show the extent of the damage caused by these fires, we heard about them in the UK but you just dont realise the knock on effect they have on nature. What other animals will be affected like this?

Well, im surprised people havent commented on this, not only have these animals just lost their habitat to fire but theyre now probably going to feel the wrath of humans.

These bears that are moving closer to towns are more likely to be shot, theyre too dangerous an animal to try and relocate or force back into what forest is left. I dont think i'd be speaking out of turn when i say that the Russian authorities will have a no-nonsense way of handling these bears. People only seem to be making the situation worse, as they often do, by feeding them and bringing them closer to human contact. Hopefully the Russians will get to grips with this before drastic measures are taken.

After many years of the bear population dwindling their numbers slowly started to increase, i just hope this situation doesnt cause too much of a dent in these numbers again.

Well that certainly seems unusual. Is there not anything to be scavaged in that area or bordering ones? I understand that there was a famine of sorts but could they not relocate?

reply to post by agent violet


Thanks for the reply.

Not after the fires, a lot of forest was destroyed. The lack of fruit, berries and animals that they would usually hunt is whats caused this problem.

I see that they blame the fires, but this happened in the north of Russia, didn't it? If bears can dig up corpses, they can't have been buried very deep. How deep? Because of the permafrost, I guess they may not be used to dig very deep graves there. I don't know. But now, the permafrost is melting, so maybe the graves are not deep enough anymore? And when the bears get a taste for human meat, they start attacking people more often. Just an idea...

reply to post by Hellmutt



That does sound sensible. I presume they must be rather shallow. And then there is the question of how they are going about prying the coffins open...

I think you're very right about the taste for human as well.