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Hollywood star Steven Seagal goes bear watching in Russia’s Far East

The actor watched wild bears and erupting geysers in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in the Kamchatka Peninsula

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 22. /TASS/. Hollywood star Steven Seagal has visited the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in the Kamchatka Peninsula (the Russian Far East) to watch wild bears and erupting geysers.

During his stay in the national park he visited three sights: the Kurile Lake, the Valley of Geysers and the Uzon volcano’s caldera, the Kronotsky Nature Reserve’s press secretary Maria Vorontsova told TASS.

"Steven Seagal spent a few hours at each of these sights. His visit to the national park came as a surprise to the inspectors and to the tourists as well. While having a short break at the Kurile Lake the actor played guitar much to the astonishment of the park’s staff, who now have no doubt that a man of talent has indeed many gifts," Vorontsova said.

During the national park tour, the staff told Seagal about the life of brown bears and the steps for their protection in the wild.

The actor had already seen brown bears while shooting at a location in Alaska but he was surprised that the bear families in Kamchatka often have up to four or five cubs at a time. The staff also demonstrated how the protection system in the national park operated. In turn, Seagal told the inspectors about the obvious efficiency of the unmanned aircrafts that the US rangers used.

"The main task of the rangers is to catch poachers in time, who penetrate the protected territory and prevent any crime against nature. Drones are indeed effective as far as these activities go," Steven Seagal said.

According to the senior state security inspector of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve Alexander Bondar, the park’s staff will soon receive some drones. But before they can start using them they will have to be retrained so they are able to operate the quadcopters in mountainous areas that occupy a large part of the national park’s territory. The inspectors gave Steven Seagal a national park security staff’s uniform cap for a souvenir. The Hollywood star left the Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday.