Bear attack in the Bieszczady Mountains. Foresters: this was the 31st case in 20 years

The attack took place on Sunday, November 12, around 4 p.m., in the area of ​​the non-existent village of Hulskie near Zatwarnica, in the Bieszczady district. Two residents of the Lutowiska commune were on a walk. One of them probably got too close to the bear’s den. The man is conscious and has lacerations to his arm and back. Doctors assess his condition as stable.

As announced on Monday by the deputy director of the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Krosno for forest management, Jan Mazurka, more and more often bears are not bothered by the proximity of humans and their smell. – This is a very bad signal, because from here we are only one step away from the so-called close encounters. If you are entering the young forest, even on a tourist trail, you should be relatively noisy. As a natural reflex, the bear will run away. Let’s remember that a bear is not a teddy bear, it can be dangerous during a close encounter, as happened last Sunday in the forest on Zatwarnica. To my knowledge, this is the 31st case of a human being severely injured by a bear in the last two decades, he added.

The Bieszczady GOPR published a recording of the action on social media.

>>> READ: Bear attack in the Bieszczady Mountains. Injured man in hospital. “It was seconds”

Encounters with a bear can be dangerous for people, especially in spring, but dangerous events occur more and more often throughout the year. Foresters appeal not to ignore warning boards placed in many places at the entrance to the forest. – We appeal to tourists not to leave waste, for example in rest areas or parking lots. Recently, bears have been often seen rummaging through garbage cans in parking lots. We urge residents to pay attention to behaviors that may attract bears, for example throwing away carrion or inappropriate location of compost bins, because bears like to bury there and do it even in close proximity to houses, the foresters noted. Bears also cause much damage to the human economy every year. At the turn of October and November, damage was reported in one of the apiaries in Puławy in the Low Beskids. This would not be surprising if it were not for the fact that the apiary is located twenty meters from the inhabited forester’s lodge, which also houses the forestry office. According to Barbara Kułak from the Rymanów Forest District, the bear left “claw prints” on one of the hives and knocked over two others, easily getting into the sweet interior. – Judging by the tracks, it was a young bear. Recently, in the village of Puławy, in the vicinity of buildings, he was seen walking in broad daylight along the road alongside the houses. In turn, at the beginning of November, a visit of another bear was recorded in the demonstration apiary “Beekeeping forest, honey bee forest” located on the Hrendówka educational path in the Pastwiska forestry. It destroyed typical hives, as well as a heavy log hive made of a huge fir trunk. Interestingly, the apiary run by the Krosno Beekeepers’ Association is located next to a forest stream called Niedźwiedzi Potok – emphasized Kułak.

According to data from the Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Rzeszów this year alone, 194 cases of bear damage were recorded. The amounts of compensation paid already amount to nearly half a million zlotys. Most often, the victims of bear attacks are apiaries, beehives and bee colonies are destroyed, but predators also attacked farm deer, poultry and rabbits.