On the Day of National Unity, November 4, a hungry bear walked into Kyzyl. The signals about the fact that the Master of the Taiga was wandering near the Goose Island up the Great Yenisei reached the State hunting and fishing commission even earlier, the chief of the State commission dept., Boris Medvedev, tells us.
“He was seen by people of Kara-Khaak, then he killed a piglet at a herding camp by Seserlig, 25 km north of Kyzyl”
The people of the right bank in Kyzyl, when they saw the bear by an earth embankment, notified the Emergency Services. The officer on duty received the signal at 15:30. The rescue workers contacted specialists at the State hunting and fishing commission. Eye-witnesses related that the hungry beast tried to attack pedestrians on the Cherbi-Kyzyl route; they were saved by a passing vehicle.
“The bear’s behavior was quite aggressive, and for that reason the specialists were forced to shoot him, - Medvedev informed us. - Material was collected and submitted to the veterinary lab for analysis. The results should be ready in 10 days. The primary examination showed an almost complete absence of body fat, meaning that the animal was motivated by hunger. This year, the harvest of cedar nuts and berries was very sparse. And a bear can’t get fat on a few cranberries anyway. It is understandable that he could not go into hibernation in such a condition. In a way it is a warning for us to be concerned, we should be prepared that such cases of bears coming out of the taiga could happen again.”