Bears Roam Tyumen Region Village, Prompting Cull Order

What happened?

This summer, for several weeks, residents of Turtas have been encountering bears roaming their village. The animals have been spotted in various areas, including near rubbish bins. Residents are frightened, raising the alarm and complaining about the authorities« inaction.

“Bears have been walking around here for a long time. According to residents, there are already three of them: a she-bear and two cubs. They move around different parts of the village. They were seen on the outskirts — at the ski base, then near the Vostochny store (next to the village administration building), at the dump — that«s on the other edge of the village. And today they were seen at the railway crossing near Yunost Komsomolskaya station. Everyone is very scared,” a local resident told a 72.RU journalist earlier.

Later we published another report with video showing a bear approaching one of the residential buildings. People tried to drive it away with various noises and shouts.

“Call Nastya, tell her there«s a bear near the house. Make sure they don»t let the little ones out,” a man says off camera.

Bears to be shot

Seven bears older than one year will be shot in Uvatsky District within a month. The cull will be carried out by authorized persons, not by all hunters. This was reported to a 72.RU journalist by the press service of the State Hunting Department of Tyumen Region.

“Due to the threat to public health posed by hunting resources, an order has been issued to regulate the brown bear population. The document provides for the regulation of the number of 7 brown bear individuals older than one year, without determining sex, by shooting in Uvatsky Municipal District from 26 August to 24 September 2026,” the department said.

Why bears come to people and what to do about them

Valery Kuzenkov, a biologist and hunting expert, and an expert for the State Duma Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, notes that the problem is linked to the huge number of brown bears in Russia — more than 300,000. But he considers the state count imperfect. By his own estimate, the real number could be two to three times higher than the official figure.

The main reason bears come to people is the search for food: they need to build up fat for the coming hibernation. Humans become a source of easily accessible food.

“They go to people. Why? People are food. Bears understand this. It«s the rubbish bins, the dumps. For example, in Tyumen Region, gas workers and oil workers come. They bang on iron pipes, and the bears understand that these are people, and head in that direction. Why? People will set up a rubbish dump in the taiga and tasty treats will be thrown there. A tin of stewed meat, a tin of condensed milk.

Kuzenkov explains that wild animals have historically developed a fear of humans. But a bear that stays near people, around dumps and rubbish bins, gets used to their smell and stops being afraid.

The expert names several situations as especially dangerous: the bear mating season, the defence of cubs, the defence of food, and a wounded or old animal unable to obtain food.

According to him, the number of hunters in the country is falling for a number of reasons, demand for bear meat is low because of trichinosis, and trophy hunting is also of little interest.

“Why don«t bear hunters shoot in villages and towns? Bureaucracy. People are afraid for one simple reason — hunting is permitted only in hunting grounds. And in towns, settlements and villages we have no right to hunt: it is prohibited by law. If a hunter takes out a gun and shoots a brown bear, he could be punished up to criminal liability, with his weapon confiscated. And people don»t want that,” he explains.

According to the interviewee, the bear population needs to be reduced.

“If an animal has tasted the smell of a human and is not afraid of a human, it must be removed from the population, otherwise a tragedy will occur later. Today it left, tomorrow it came back, and the day after it attacked a person,” Kuzenkov insists.

The expert recalls the Soviet system: until the 1970s, the brown bear was regarded as a predator, it could be shot all year round, and hunters were paid bonuses for it. Later, when the population declined, the rules were changed and the bear became a licensed species.

“After the 1970s, the country«s hunting experts realised that bear numbers had declined and that it no longer harmed agriculture or people. They made it a licensed species. They set hunting seasons, and hunting began. Now the situation has returned to the 1970s. That is, it needs to be declared a predator, hunted year-round and people paid money for it,” Kuzenkov added.

Recently, residents of Tobolsk reported the appearance of a bear in one of the city«s districts. As evidence, they showed photographs. The administration said that Mayor Pyotr Vagin ordered a survey of the area where traces of the wild animal were found, including from the air.