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[size=85:1stxgk2c]novinite 18 May 2010

Killer Bear Terrorizes Bulgarian Village

A 65-year-old man has been killed by a bear in the Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria.

According to Commissar Kiril Hadzhihristev, head of the Regional Police Directorate of the Smolyan District, it is absolutely certain that the victim, Nikola Shikov from the village of Kutela, was attacked and killed by a bear Monday afternoon.

Shikov is believed to have been out in the local forest collecting firewood when he fell pray to the killer bear.

Local people have discovered his mutilated corpse later. They have traced the blood tracks to the den of the animal.

Emil Stoyanov, mayor of Kutela, has explained that the residents of the village are in a state of horror, and are afraid to leave their homes.

He also said there had been attacks by bears on domestic animals and bee-hives every single year in the last five years but that the bears never dared to attack a human before.

“I am very concerned because according to recent data there are some 220 bears living in the Smolyan Municipality. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the bears are starving because there is no functioning system for supplying food for them. Yet, humans should not become food for the bears,” stated Smolyan Mayor Dora Yankova as quoted by dir.bg.

Yankova has called upon everybody in the area to be alert over the danger, and has moved to convene a meeting of all responsible local institutions including the Regional Environment and Waters Inspectorate, the Regional Forestry Agency, and the police in order to figure out a solution to what appears to be an emering starving bears issue.

[size=55:33xsi23c]Sofia echo 05 August 2010

Bulgarian authorities kill brown bear that attacked woman

Authorities have killed the bear that attacked a woman near the village of Malka Arda in southern Bulgaria, in the Rhodope Mountains, Ekaterina Gadjeva from the Regional Environment Inspectorate in Smolyan told Bulgarian media on August 5 2010.

The bear attacked the 64-year-old woman on the morning of July 14. The incident occurred at about 9am between the villages of Malka Arda and Oryahovets in south Bulgaria, in the municipality of Banite, Malka Arda mayor Rossen Iliev said.

Mountain rangers and the authorities were on the hunt for the animal for nearly a month. About14 traps were installed between Malka Arda and Kutela for its capture.

The authorisation for the hunt was given to the Slaveino hunting club in the village of Slaveinovo. They were told to "
organise a hunting party in the Banite Municipality near Malka Arda and have the bear killed,"
bTV reported on July 21 2010.

In May 2010, a brown bear killed a man near the Smolyan village of Koutela, which prompted to the authorities to order the bear killed as well. However, authorities say that such events are rare and attacks on humans are reportedly "
exceptional cases"
.

The Bulgarian brown bear is, or the (Ursus arctos arctos) is a subspecies of the brown bear (Ursus arctos), and found across northern Eurasia. The brown bear is also known as the "
common brown bear"
, and colloquially by many other names.

The animal is widespread in Bulgaria. Bears are found on Vitosha Mountain, close to Sofia as well as Rila, Pirin, the Rhodope mountains, the Lozenska Mountain and Bulgaria's spine, the massive Stara Planina range.

The Bulgarian brown bear is a protected species, and their killing is authorised only if they have been proven to attack humans.

[size=55:2m720hat]novinite 13 August 2010

New Killer Bear Raids in Bulgaria's Rhodope Mountains

Two attacks by killer bears on domestic animals occurred overnight in the Smolyan District in Southern Bulgaria.

The bears have killed and eaten several sheep in two separate villages, Slaveyno and Borikovo.

The local authorities have inspected the damages and are to compensate the owners for them.

Since the spring of 2010, the Smolyan District has seen an increased number of attacks on domestic animals by killer bears as well as two attacks on humans – a 65-year-old man was killed and mutilated in May near the village of Kutela, and a 64-year-old woman was severely wounded near the village of Malka Arda, 30 km away, in July.

As a result, the government has moved to increase the monitoring of the brown bear population.

The Bulgarian authorities spent a total of BGN 60 000 in 2009 to compensate farmers in the Rhodope Mountains whose animals were eaten by bears.

[size=55:3jzkdlk8]novinite 13 August 2010

Bulgarians Get Tips on How to Profit from Brown Bears

NGOs will be teaching Bulgarian peasants in mountain regions how to profit economically from the presence of brown bears, including by using them to attract tourists.

This has been made clear by the Information and Nature Conservation Foundation, whose activists will be holding seminars on brown bear in October.

The training sessions are first and foremost expected to teach locals from Southern Bulgaria how to protect themselves from the attacks of killer bears but will also explicitly focus on the potential of the bear population to attract tourists.

A total of 75 hunters, civil servants, alternative tourism businessmen, and community leaders will initially go through the training that will take place in the village of Belitsa, which is located at the junction of the Rila, Pirin, and Rhodope Mountains.

Belitsa is also the site of the Bulgarian nature park which is the home of several dozen former “dancing bears” seized from Roma families from around the country and the Balkans after the ownership of dancing bears was outlawed.

“The unauthorized hunting down of brown bears in Bulgaria is punished with 5 years in prison but it also threatens the life of those doing the hunting. Wounded bears who survive are dangerous for weeks after they are shot at. We cannot preserve a certain species without understanding on part of the local communities. Some years ago the population of the Black Sea monk seal along the Bulgarian coast was decimated by local fishermen because the seals would tear their nets,” explained Kostadin Vulchev, a representative of the environmental NGO Balkani.

Vulchev has thus snubbed the calls by residents of the Smolyan District in the Rhodope Mountains that a high number of bears in the region must be hunted down because of the recent killer bear raids, which claimed one life.

The environmentalists have attributed the higher number of killer bear attacks to encroachments into the personal territory of the brown bears by humans, especially as the number of hunters in Bulgaria is estimated to have doubled since the early 1990s. The brown bear habitats are believed to have been restricted by construction and logging.

“Bears can turn into an attraction bringing tourists to remote, depopulated villages,” believes another environmentalist, Dr. Diana Zlatanova.

The eco NGOs estimate the number of brown bears in Bulgaria at about 500 to 800, which is the third highest in Europe after Finland and Romania.

Bulgaria Forms 'Rapid Reaction Force' to Crack Down on Killer Bears

Following the several recent cases of killer bear raids, Bulgaria's Environment Ministry has announced the creation of a special task force to tackle “problematic bears”.

According to Deputy Environment Minister Evdokiya Maneva, the “rapid reaction force” will consist of experts from the ministries of environment and agriculture, and will be able to intervene immediately in new cases of killer bear attacks, including by providing for the swift hunting down of the “problematic” animals.

Maneva has defined “a problematic bear” as a bear that attacks livestock, not just people.

The decision for the rapid killed bear reaction force was made at the first meeting of an inter-institution council on bears, including representatives of various state institutions.

The “bear council” has set a goal to resettle two bears from the Smolyan District elsewhere in the country by the end of October. It is still unclear where the bears might be resettled but this will be done with the agreement of local residents, the Deputy Environment Minister explained.

The council on brown bears will get together in mid August to hammer out details of two bear census initiatives planned for end September and November.

The Environment Ministry projects are in response to the several attacks on domestic animals and people by brown bears in the Smolyan District located in the Rhodope Mountains, which have claimed one life.

On Friday environmental NGOs announced their own measures to help locals cope with the bear issue but emphasized the need to preserve the brown bears, including as a tourism asset.

"
I personally have reservations with respect to the data submitted at present. I think that the population of brown bears in Bulgaria is higher,"
Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov stated, speaking at the symbolic opening of Bulgaria's new hunting season on Saturday.

Bulgarian MPs Adopt Dubious Law on Killer Bears, Killer Goats

Bulgaria's Parliament has adopted perplexing amendments to the Hunting Act, which are theoretically supposed to help the authorities tackle the problem with killer bears in the Rhodope Moutnain.

The changes approved Friday actually transfer responsibilities from the Environment Ministry to the Agriculture Ministry with respect not just to the population of brown bears, but also with respect to chamois, the European species of mountain goats.

The "
packaging"
together of the two species – one of which, the chamois, is a herbivore and, unlike the several cases of attacks by killer brown bears in the spring and summer, would hardly ever assail humans – has led the opposition parties and environmentalists to claim that the Hunting Act amendments are designed to serve private interests dealing with hunting tourism.

After one person was killed and another was severely wounded by killer bears in the southern District of Smolyan, the government vowed to take measures to tackle any issues created by the rising population of brown bears.

One such measure is supposed to be the amendment to the Hunting Act which stipulates that the Agriculture Minister will be the one to issue permits for the hunting of brown bears – and, interestingly enough, of mountain goats – a responsibility currently enjoyed by the Environment Minister.

The control and monitoring of the population of these two species is left as a responsibility of the Environment Ministry.

The rationale for this amendment is that the Agriculture Ministry will be implementing "
the bear management plan in the country"
because the Forestry Agency, which is part of this ministry has all the respective specialists on the spot that provide constant information about the populations of brown bears and chamois. Thus, the Forestry Agency and its principal, the Agriculture Ministry, are supposed to be the ones to best manage the population of both brown bears and chamois, as the two species are said to have similar population patterns.

"
We currently have a working mechanism for the hunting down of killer bears, when those exist. In addition, there are all kinds of facilities for artificial feeding of the wild bears to prevent them from entering in contact with the local people. I believe that this is just one more lobbyist amendment serving business interests – in this case the interests of the hunting and forestry units, and the hunting tourism,"
stated MP Alexander Radoslavov from the opposition Socialist Party.

"
What does it mean to have the same management models for the chamois and the brown bear? Why are you going to exterminate the mountain goats because of problems with the brown bears?"
he asked the ruling party GERB which supported the amendments.

"
I really like statements of laymen on any topics. If you hear me talk about aeronautics, you can have a good laugh. I am constantly listening about the use of these electric fences. What, are we going to fence off the villages like concentration camps? And about those anti-bear sprays? Sir, I will give you one of those sprays and will take you to a killer bear. I think your pants will be filled with certain substances immediately,"
said MP Emil Dimitrov from the ruling party GERB in response to those slamming the hunt of killer bears.

Dimitrov is the major proponent of the changes to the Hunting Act, and according to the opposition and some media he is trying to profit from the problem with the killer bears by slipping in the mountain goats as well because he has a private hunting tourism firm.

"
I have no idea why another protected species, the chamois, is included in this hunting regime. I have never heard of cases in which it attacked people. To the contrary, it is attacked by people because it is attractive to hunters,"
commented MP Iskra Mihaylova, from the opposition ethnic Turkish party DPS.

Dimitrov, however, has pointed out that "
the two species have identical management plans, and there is no logic in viewing them separately."
He believes both species are surviving because of the artificial feeding and other measures of the local Forestry Agency units.

[size=55:er71zbqf]Focus radio 20 October 2010

Bear attacked and injured pregnant cow

A Bear attacked and injured barn pregnant cow in the area Samogile near the village of Devin Beden, Smolyan director of the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water Eng Ellen Minchev. The signal for the attack in ekoinspektsiyata was received yesterday around 16.00. The cow remained alive, but because of his injuries is proposed to be slaughtered. The owner of a stall is a farmer from the neighbourhood Nastan "
and this is the second bear attack on his flock, before time was again affected cow. Minchev Eng explained that the cow had received injuries to the head. The attack was attended by Committee of RIEW Smolyan, local forestry and city hall.

What a terrible shame :Very sad:I expect there is not chance of saving the calf either

Oddy

You're right Berni but lets face it the bear needs to eat and its own habitat is declining all the time, we often look at something like this and think of the victim? in this case a cow but to the bear its food and it needs to eat and maybe feed its young? but ultimately we as the human race have a responsibility towards these animals be it a cow or a bear.

Its very sad this is all round I see that these great bears can be hunted in Bulgaria along with the wild goat what will they do when there isn't any of either left ? its the same all the time! destroy it and then wonder where they went wrong

[size=55:29qsnrc5]novinite

Bulgaria to Hunt 17 Brown Bears

Seventeen brown bears will be legally hunted in Bulgaria 2011, as the government introduced a bear hunting quota for the first time on Thursday.

Bulgaria has introduced the quota as a measure on controlling the animals' population after one person was killed and another was severely wounded by killer bears in the southern District of Smolyan in 2010.

According to recent tallies, some 550 brown bears currently inhabit the Bulgarian lands. Seven bears will be hunteded in the Smolyan region, the others are planned to be in the southern regions of Pazardzhik, Blagoevgrad and Stara Zagora, as well as the northern regions of Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech.

Hunting and killing brown bears has been prohibited in Bulgaria over the last 20 years.

Also on Thursday, Swedish policy on wolf hunting went under review by the European Commission, as Sweden has allowed wolf hunting under license, which might be in violation of European Union laws protecting endangered species.

If "
Hunting and killing brown bears has been prohibited in Bulgaria over the last 20 years"
what do they intend to do with the bears once they have found them??? I do believe is now law that these bears are protected ? but I maybe wrong about that and in any case the Bulgarian government have said in their own words that its illegal to hunt and kill bears so what are they playing here

Its very sad this is but I'm afraid thats MAN for you we seem to think we own everything and when we take from the animals and they then get angry we wonder why ??

It was only last year that a bear became a human killer in the mountains. I think that it is sad to see these animals destroyed but once they taste human blood then they might well come back for more. So as with what happens to a dog that bites the hand that feeds it, they are put down. This must also happen to the bear that tastes human blood I'm afraid.

[size=55:1ielurzu]BNR

Bear population in Bulgaria below admissible border line

Bulgaria is one of the few European countries, where bears can be seen outside the zoos. Several hundreds of them wander around the mountains and those prove that the nature of this country is well preserved. However, over the past few years people, living in such areas have found it difficult to live together with the big predators. More and more bears have started to attack farm animals, bee-gardens and fruit trees. A first fatal accident was registered in 2010, when a bear’s assault had lethal end. People living around the town of Smolyan in the Rhodopee Mountain started to protest then. An urgent census of the bears there and all over the country was found to be necessary. Experts had to assess whether the ban over bear hunting had to fall, as this species is a protected one in Europe.

A monitoring has to be carried out for at least three years in a row, in order for reliable data on bear population to be received, experts say. A first census took place in the autumn of 2010 and the results of three different teams’ work with three different methods were similar, which was a good starting point. What were those results? The total number of brown bears in Bulgaria is some 600 and almost 100 of those live in the area of Smolyan, close to settlements. Is this too much? Aleksandar Dutsov from the Balkani Wildlife Society that took part in the census, gave us the answers:

“We can’t say that the population is too big or thick – he told Radio Bulgaria. – Data shows that the bears’ number is perhaps 50 percent less than the environment’s capacity. Research data says that over 1,000 – 1,200 bears can live in Bulgaria. There is enough food for them. The population in the area of Smolyan is perhaps 40-50 animals below the capacity of the environment. An overpopulation of bears is out of question. However, for certain there is a social issue. It occurs when people start to provide food for bears, unwillingly or not. Thus the animals start to shorten the distance and to accept people as a source of food that is much more accessible than their natural environment. When I say “food for bears” I mean unguarded farm animals and beehives, throwing of waste food in open containers and also intensive feeding of wild animals, especially outside the winter season. And when for some reason the bear feels the lack of this food resource, it walks towards human settlements to look for it. Such animals are the biggest problem, because they have no fear of people.”

Experts say that the so popular now feeding of wild animals can be very dangerous.

“Wild animals are fed all the time and really intensively right before the hunting season in October – Mr. Dutsov says. – Huge quantities of corn are provided, close to settlements, in order for each hunting group to be able to “steal” the wild boars of the neighbouring one.”

Environmentalists and state authorities recommend a series of measures for prevention of the human-bear conflict. Herds should be guarded with Karakachan dogs, beehives and fruit trees should be protected via electrical fences, waste containers should be closed etc. People should also know several major rules for behaviour in case of a sudden meeting with a bear.

Admin wrote:

People should also know several major rules for behaviour in case of a sudden meeting with a bear.

Rules for meeting a bear:

1. Try to be on time - a disgruntled bear is a dangerous bear.
2. Do not offer your hand in greeting as you may soon find it missing.
3. Do offer the bear honey to placate it.
4. Never refer to bearskin rugs in any conversation with a bear.