"Maybe the bears will motivate us."
Why are bears attacking Russians and what needs to be changed in our approach to ecology?
According to the calculations NotMoscowAccording to open-source data, bears have killed 20 people in 11 regions this year. Another 24 people were injured and miraculously escaped.
For comparison: last year, seven Russians died after bear attacks; in 2024, eight.
Bears have begun approaching people much more frequently than before. The most popular theory is that this is due to a poor harvest of berries and pine cones in the forests.
NeMoscow spoke with a blogger about what actually makes a bear approach a person. a wandering zoologist i (He travels to different countries to study animals, gives lectures and conducts excursions) Mikhail Berezhnoy.
How bears killed and maimed Russians in 2026See our timeline →Lots of bears and little food
The number of bears is growing every year. Since the 1990s, their numbers have increased almost two and a half times: from 120 to 300.
Humans are partly to blame for this: conservation [of animals] has improved, while hunting and its popularity have declined. You see, now a bear skin hanging on a wall or lying on the floor is considered bad form. It's no longer cool. Therefore, hunting bears for their skins or meat is no longer relevant. Hunting is on the decline.
Besides humans, bears have almost no enemies in the forest—unless they're another larger bear. Or an Amur tiger. But there aren't many Amur tigers yet.
Consequently, the bear population has increased. And since this animal is large, it needs to eat a lot. The most sensitive period is from midsummer to late fall, when the bears begin hibernation. They're constantly hungry, and this isn't just a whim—it's crucial for them to survive the winter.
Nature has a certain capacity for resources. If we're talking about a forest, it has a certain amount of berries, pine cones, nuts, fish, and so on. And when the berry and pine cone harvest periodically fails, bears become hungry and angry. The larger ones begin to drive away the smaller ones, competition for territory increases, and the animals are forced to expand their range. This includes approaching people. Because when you're hungry and need to somehow survive the winter, you have no choice but to go to someone you might have problems with and steal something from their trash heap.
And judging by the fact that quite a lot of bears are coming out to people right now, there's a serious shortage of food in the forest. This means that this winter we'll have a certain number of bears waking up hungry in the middle of winter. And these will be very angry and extremely unpleasant bears.
Man and his trash
At the same time, humans are expanding their range: more and more new territories are being built upon and transformed. We are placing enormous pressure on nature, changing it dramatically, but we can't stop. Animals are becoming fewer and fewer on the planet. Essentially, they are going extinct, comparable to mass extinctions of the past, when meteorites fell, our land froze, and so on.
If you remember, a couple of decades ago, when we were driving somewhere long, the windshield would be covered in bugs. Now, you can drive for a very long time without seeing any bugs smeared all over the car. And this isn't due to improved aerodynamics. It's just that these are factors we no longer pay attention to.
And, unfortunately, one of the main problems of human presence is the garbage they leave behind, including landfills. This is food for bears, and it smells delicious.
There would be far fewer problems if we sorted our waste: plastic separately, metal separately, and so on. And we would hide the organic waste somewhere.
Brown bears aren't just found in our country. Canada and the United States have also encountered this problem, and they've dealt with it quite well. However, that was back in the middle of the last century. Even then, it became clear that culling wasn't an option. And that we need to address the root causes—why bears approach people and why conflicts are increasing.
So, in one of the nature reserves, a rather indicative project was carried out: over the course of about eight years, all the trash was removed and people were taught proper behavior (primarily, not to litter or feed wild animals). As a result, the number of attacks per season dropped from 80 to practically zero.
You know, people often ask me how to get rid of cockroaches or ants in the house. And I answer: if you keep your home spotlessly clean, then ants and cockroaches won't have anything to do with it. Don't leave crumbs, wash your dishes regularly, and so on.
It's the same with bears. Only on a more global scale. Don't litter the forest. Don't create huge open dumps where anyone can enter. Ideally, such dumps should be closed or at least fenced with an electric fence, which quickly evokes negative associations in the animal and makes it clear it's best not to go there.
Are we tasty or not?
Shooting [which the Russian authorities are currently proposing] is also a method. Inhumane, unethical, and ancient. And in reality, it's more about pacifying the population than solving the real problem.
So, people would feel safer if the bear that ate a person was no longer alive. Because we still believe the pernicious myth that humans possess some incredible taste properties and that any predator that tastes them will immediately switch exclusively to them and be unable to eat anything else.
Of course, that's nonsense. In reality, we're just ordinary animals. And probably not even tasty, because we put on a bunch of clothes and other things—things that aren't edible.
A real solution to the bear problem requires enormous resources, investment, and time. Just imagine the cost of discouraging the entire country from littering in the forests and enclosing landfills with electric fences.
This requires significant resources. But many people with such resources have less than desirable traits: greed, avarice, and stupidity. And, unfortunately, they don't see the immediate biological and ecological consequences. They think, "We did something, and there was no immediate repercussion. There's no particularly negative feedback from nature." That's right. That feedback will come later. It's a cumulative process that will develop over time.
On the other hand, sooner or later we'll have to come to this—to change our approach to life. And maybe the bears will encourage us to do so.
What to do if you encounter a bear
Another important consideration is how people behave when encountering a bear. Not knowing how to behave can provoke aggression in the animal.
This is basically normal: people who aren't trained in biology or zoology may not know something. Some lack even a basic understanding of what a bear is. I've met adults who thought bears were vegetarians. At first, I thought I was being trolled. But then it turned out that people really did think that.
A colleague who worked with polar bears in the Far North and lived in a small village was returning from research one day and encountered an old woman carrying a chicken to the outskirts of the village. "I'm feeding the bear there. He's so skinny. I feel so sorry for him." The colleague said, "Granny, that's a polar bear. Don't do that. What's wrong? He's about to feed on you." She replied, "You don't live here, you don't understand anything."
And it's difficult with people like that. Because while a brown bear at least has berries, mushrooms, and nuts, a polar bear eats only meat—it simply has no other options.
There are tons of videos online of people feeding bears on the highway because they think it's cool. But this is very unhealthy in the long term, because you're accustoming the bear to humans, and it quickly develops a connection between you and food.
If in the 1990s or early 2000s a car would stop next to a bear to stick a gun through and shoot it, now it stops to feed it. Animals understand and sense this perfectly. I travel a lot and see where animals are actively hunted and where they aren't. In Montenegro, for example, animals are wary of people because the hunting tradition is still active there, and they keep a significant distance. Even birds keep a distance of about 50 meters—just the right range for a gunshot. How would they know? But they know from somewhere—they have some experience.
And when hunting becomes scarce, animals come closer. And when people don't know how to behave around wild animals, things can end tragically.
First of all, don't feed them. And remember, when we're walking through the forest, we're not Disney princesses. And if we encounter a moose with antlers, it won't greet us with, "Hello, human." It might butt us.
There are clear rules for how to behave when encountering a bear: do not approach, do not touch the cubs, and do not run away. Travel in groups through the forest, stay close to each other, and avoid leaving stragglers behind.
But, you know, fear is a funny thing. I can tell you all I want about not running and not being afraid. But there have been many cases where, say, even a group of zoology students was told, "Do you understand, kids, that we don't run from a bear because that provokes it?" "Yes, of course we understand, we're zoologists, what are you telling us?" But as soon as a bear roars somewhere in the distance, the zoologists are gone—they scatter. To say nothing of ordinary people who've already heard plenty of news about bear attacks and perhaps even seen unpleasant footage of the aftermath of their meal. Naturally, a person encountering a bear becomes afraid: first the legs start moving, and only then does the memory of not running come to the fore.
It's not a given that a bear will chase you. But it's very easy to lose your composure in moments like these. And I don't judge.
Watch Mikhail Berezhnoy's interview for the video release NotMoscow Today
