Polar bears terrorise Russian Arctic outpost

Residents plead for help as dozens of predators, forced inland by melting ice cap, invade homes and buildings

A RUSSIAN Arctic archipelago has been “invaded” by dozens of aggressive polar bears that have entered homes and public buildings, in the latest sign that global warming is disrupting their habitat. The north-eastern Novaya Zemlya archipelago, which has a population of around 3,000 people, has appealed for help to tackle “a mass invasion of polar bears into inhabited areas”, regional authorities said.

So far, the Russian authorities have refused permission to shoot the bears but are sending a commission to investigate the situation and they have not ruled out a cull.

Polar bears are affected by global warming, with melting Arctic ice forcing them to spend more time on land where they have to compete for food. The giant predators are recognised as an endangered species in Russia and hunting them is banned.

Moscow has air force and air defence troops based on Novaya Zemlya.

Since December, 52 polar bears have regularly visited Belushya Guba, the archipelago’s main settlement, with some displaying “aggressive behaviour”, Alexander Minayev, a local official, said in a report to the regional authorities.

This included “attacks on people and entering residential homes and public buildings”, said Minayev, the deputy chief of the local administration. “There are constantly six to 10 bears inside the settlement,” he said.

“People are scared, they are afraid to leave their homes... parents are frightened to let their children go to schools and kindergartens.”

Zhigansha Musin, the head of the local administration, said that the number of polar bears was unprecedented. “I’ve been on Novaya Zemlya since 1983 and there’s never been such a mass invasion,” he told the regional officials.

Bears are constantly inside a military garrison and “literally chase people” he said, as well as going into the entrances of blocks of flats.

“Compared to previous years, they come ashore in the southern part of the archipelago, where the ice is changing. They migrate through Novaya Zemlya heading north, where the ice is solid,” Ilya Mordvintsev, a lead researcher at the Severtsev Institute of Ecology and Evolution, told TASS news agency.

“It is migration from the south to the north. They are staying in that location [near Belushya Guba] because there is some alternative food. They could have gone past but for the food. But as there are bins with edible waste, they stop to flock.”

It is not the first time polar bears have run amok on Russian soil. In October, a coastal town was besieged by hungry polar bears leaving the inhabitants “gripped by fear”.

In that incident at least six bears descended on Dikson, the most northerly inhabited place in Russia.

Mobile phone footage captured several terrifying confrontations with the world’s largest land-based predator, which can weigh 1,300lbs or more and can run at up to 25mph.