Russia Approves Cull of Up to 30% of Brown Bears After Attacks Kill 36 People This Year
Russia has authorized a cull of up to 30% of the brown bear population in each of its regions after bear attacks killed 36 people so far this year, the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on Friday.
The ministry said the new limits were designed to bring bear numbers under control and reduce the number of attacks on people. The order has already been registered with Russia’s Justice Ministry, according to a ministry statement quoted by the state-run RIA news agency.
A year of rising encounters
Since the beginning of the year, Russian authorities have received more than 12,000 reports of brown bears approaching people, the ministry said. Those encounters included 87 attacks, 36 of which were fatal.
The death toll rose by one earlier this week after a security guard was killed at a holiday camp in the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, RIA reported.
“In view of the situation, a decision was taken to remove limits and set a maximum quota for culling at 30% of the brown bear population in each region,” the ministry said, according to RIA.
The ministry put Russia’s total brown bear population at about 308,000. Quotas will vary from region to region, including 14% in Kamchatka and 19% in western Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region. The ministry also allocated funding worth more than $970,000 to remove bears known to approach people and feed at landfills.
What remains unclear
The RIA report gave no indication of when the cull would begin or how long it would remain in effect, and the precise terms of the order have not been made public. Russian news agency Interfax described the 30% figure as a maximum removal norm, while the Parliamentary Gazette’s reporting framed it as an instruction for regions to raise their harvests to that level. The figures cited by the ministry are government figures carried by Russian state media and have not been independently audited.
Why this matters
Brown bears are widespread across Russia’s forests, from the European north to the Pacific coast, and encounters have grown more frequent as bears increasingly wander into settlements and landfill sites in search of food. The cull is one of the largest wildlife-control measures Russia has announced in years, and it is likely to draw scrutiny from conservation groups, which argue that removing problem animals and securing food waste is more effective than broad population cuts.
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The ministry said the cull would target bears that approach people and feed at landfills, rather than animals in remote wilderness. No start date has been announced, and it is not yet clear how regional authorities will divide the quotas or report the numbers killed.
Frequently asked questions
How many people have been killed by bears in Russia this year?
Thirty-six people have been killed in 87 reported bear attacks since the start of the year, according to Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
What is the 30% cull limit?
The ministry set a maximum quota allowing the culling of up to 30% of the brown bear population in each region. Regional quotas vary: 14% in Kamchatka and 19% in the Krasnoyarsk region.
When will the cull begin?
That has not been announced. The RIA report gave no indication of when the cull would start or how long it would remain in effect.
How many brown bears live in Russia?
The ministry estimates the population at about 308,000 bears.
Russia’s decision sets up a test of whether large-scale culling can reduce a rising toll of human-bear encounters — or whether the problem will keep growing as bears and people share more of the same ground.
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Sources: Reuters, Reuters, Bytes Europe, Heyday News
