TASS, June 19. The corpse of a man with signs of a bear attack was found in Magadan, in northeastern Russia, while three more local residents injured by the predator bruin are in hospital, the regional administration’s press office said on Monday.
"A man's body with traces of a bear attack was found in Magadan. Three more people were injured by the bear's claws; they are all now in the hospital. All instances occurred in a private sector area in Magadan on 3rd Transportny Lane," the press statement reported. It also clarified that the exact causes of the man's death have not yet been officially determined. The bear had apparently buried the corpse in bushes, and proceeded to attack its other victims within the immediate area adjacent to where it hid the body.
Information that the bear may have been injured is being verified. The search for the predator bruin is being conducted around the clock using thermal imaging devices. The scene of the incident is cordoned off to prevent residents from unwittingly entering a hazardous zone.
Oleg Kosolapov, head of the regional Nature and Ecology Ministry, noted that, compared to last year, the number of calls about bears approaching people has halved, going from 32 to 16 calls. Magadan residents complained that bears had ravaged their summer cottages and attacked pet dogs. They appear to be unafraid of gunshots and loud noises, and purposefully head straight to tourists. The main reason for such behavior by the bruins may be improper behavior by people who regularly feed such predators.
According to the estimates of hunters, the region is inhabited by about 16,000 bears. The Natural Resources Ministry can issue 2,500 hunting licenses annually for bagging the brown predators, but hunters have taken up only one-tenth of the allotted quota. There is no special program for culling the country’s bear population. "Currently, there is nothing for bears to eat in the forest tundra and taiga. The mass entry of fish into rivers is expected only in a week or two. Only then will the bears move away from the vicinity of [human] population centers closer to bodies of water and will cease to pose a clear threat to tourists," Kosolapov explained.