PODTESOVO, Russia, Oct 12 - A brown bear bounds across the Siberian taiga before two hunters close in on their prey. Three shots ring out and the bear quickly drops dead in the long grass.
Cradling his rifle as he rests his hand on the dead animal's fur, hunter Mikhail Kondakov says he and others have heeded requests from residents in the nearby settlement of Podtesovo after a fatal bear attack on local women.
"The bear situation in the settlement is very difficult at the moment," Kondakov told Reuters.
"Bears have increasingly been coming directly into the settlement. This year we had a tragedy — two women who went mushroom picking were killed by a man-eating bear. We decided to start hunting bears because there are so many of them."
BEAR POPULATION HAS SPIRALLED OUT OF CONTROL
The problem is nationwide. The Russian government said last month it was drawing up urgent measures to control the population of brown bears that has spiralled out of control in some regions, with at least 22 people killed in attacks since this spring, according to state media.
The population of brown bears has more than doubled in the last three decades to 308,000 according to government data, in part due to shorter and milder winters.
Experts cited in Russian media have said bears have been forced to look further afield for food this year because an early and dry spring meant there was a lack of berries for them to feed on. People have also been blamed for leaving food waste out in the open where it attracts bears and for ignoring safety rules.
In Krasnoyarsk, the Siberian region where Kondakov is hunting and which is home to nearly 27,000 bears, investigators said last month that they had opened a criminal case into the local environment ministry, accusing it of failing to keep bear numbers under control, negligence which they said had led to the deaths of seven people in September alone.
In Podtesovo, a settlement of around 3,500 people perched on the right bank of the River Yenisei, a simple wooden cross stands on the grave of Zoya Gubanova along with a colour photograph of the late pensioner. Gubanova, 67, was killed on August 31 in a bear attack while out gathering mushrooms, a popular Russian pastime.
Chatting outside her wooden house, Yulia Markova, a local resident, says the situation has become intolerable.
"We have been living in fear for almost two months now, we cannot even go out for a walk in the evening. People are afraid to let their children go out alone. This is not a cuddly toy, it is not some soft, harmless teddy bear. It is a wild animal. And who knows what its intentions are, what kind of mood it is in when it comes here. Maybe it is simply curious, or maybe it is looking for its next victim," she said.
Markova said that locals, like bear attack victim Gubanova, had not fully understood the danger posed by bears and that people had initially felt sorry for them because they clearly did not have enough nuts and berries to eat this year.
But she said hearts had hardened after the bears started coming into the settlement in large numbers.
"We have never seen an invasion like this before," said Markova.
BEARS COMING INTO PARKS WHERE CHILDREN PLAY
Watching her daughter relax at the local playground, pregnant mother Valeriya Efremova said heightened bear activity had changed locals' lives.
"When the bears started coming out of the forest, we restricted outings as much as possible, even to the park. It was really frightening because bears were even coming into the park where children play. Going out after dark was absolutely out of the question. Even now, although the number of sightings seems to have fallen, at least according to the information we have, you still walk around looking over your shoulder," she said.
Nikolai Zhilinsky, another local, said people were waiting for the weather to get colder and for the bears to hibernate, but he said people would still be worried even when that happened.
"We are not sure that all of the bears will hibernate. There are too many of them and they are hungry," he said. He was afraid to go fishing in his boat in case he was attacked by a bear, he added.
Vladimir Vagin, another local, said people feared they could be attacked in their own gardens. He pointed to an area near a raspberry bush in his own garden where he believed a bear had been.
Driving through the settlement after dark, he noted how empty the streets were.
"People don't go out because they are afraid," he said. REUTERS