#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. When a person encounters a polar bear in the wild, in every third case the animals die, and in six percent of cases the person is injured. Such data was discussed at the Bear Patrol session of the III All-Russian Youth Forum Arctic: The Ice has Broken in Arhangelsk.
“Of 179 conflicts between humans and bears that scientists studied, in 33 percent of cases the animal died, in six percent people were injured, in 60 percent of cases damage was avoided for both sides”, TASS quotes the words of a senior researcher at the Beringia national park Anatoly Kochnev.
As a rule, it is not people who suffer when meeting, but animals.
“Over the 40 years that I have been working in Chukotka, I have developed an understanding of how to peacefully coexist with a polar bear. Bear patrols are needed near rotational camps, ethnic villages, and in places where hunters live. It is also necessary to isolate food intake points, warehouses, and pack food in sealed containers”, Kochnev said.
The Moscow Zoo’s chief doctor Dmitry Egorov spoke about how operations to rescue polar bears are carried out. Unless absolutely necessary, animals are not taken to zoos; they are left in natural conditions. Especially for such operations, there is a mobile group ready to fly to the incident scene. For such cases, doctors keep “alarm suitcases” with everything necessary, including anesthesia drugs. Previously, they used imported drugs, but, according to Egorov, now an analogue is produced by the Skolkovo Institute.
The session also discussed the recently created monitoring system, which through neurophoto traps receives images in real time, artificial intelligence recognizes a polar bear, determines the danger class and, if necessary, notifies special services and village residents.
Previously, we told that a polar bear in the Yenisey gulf forced a huge icebreaker to veer off its path.
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Text: Victor Borodin, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov
