Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Kamchatka launched the “Bear Environment”
The year 2024 stunned residents of Kamchatka with an unprecedented number of bear sightings in populated areas. The club-footed ones became more active in September and October, the Kamchatka.Today reports with reference to the Kronotsky Nature Reserve.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was no exception – predators were noted in almost every microdistrict of the regional capital. Experts cite a lack of forage in forests and fishless rivers as the main reason.
Bear visits to towns and cities of the region are celebrated annually. In close proximity to humans (settlements are surrounded by hills and forests), some predators have learned to forage for high-calorie food near settlements in garbage dumps and fish dumps, beg on highways and campsites, and attack dogs and livestock.
But not as massively as it happened in the fall of 2024. To this day, bears that have not settled in their dens are noted in different areas of Kamchatka near populated areas and in places of winter recreation for tourists. According to experts, the scale of last year clearly indicates a shortage of natural food.
“The forced mass migration of animals occurred due to the lack of all the food familiar to clubfoot. Both the extremely low yield of vegetation, including cedar elderberry and berries, and the weak approaches of fish, their main food,” explained hunting biologist Vladimir Gordienko, who has been studying brown bears of the peninsula for more than 30 years.
Kamchatka is a land of volcanoes, geysers and brown bears, which have long become a symbol of the region. Their population here is one of the most numerous in the world – more than 20 thousand individuals. But the development of tourism, the development of native bear territories, insufficient culture of waste management and human behavior in the wild are increasingly leading to conflicts between humans and predators.
Why aren’t the bears sleeping yet? How to maintain balance and avoid tragedies? How is the problem of conflict between humans and wild predatory animals being solved in the world and how are they being helped? All this will be considered as part of the information campaign “Bear Wednesday”, which is being launched by the Kronotsky Nature Reserve.
Photo by Andrey Gabov/Kronotsky zaprovednik.