Mongolia warned schools and kindergartens on Friday to avoid outings to forested and mountainous areas after a fatal bear attack and a sharp rise in sightings of the animals.
So far this year, 754 bear sightings have been recorded across the vast and thinly populated country, 80 percent of which involved cubs or female bears accompanied by cubs, authorities said.
In the capital, Ulaanbaatar alone, 24 confirmed sightings have been reported, compared with just two in 2018 and one in 2019.
“Due to bear sightings near populated areas, schools and kindergartens are advised not to organise group autumn trips or outings,” the Ministry of Education said in a statement.
“Children should not be allowed to go into forested or mountainous areas alone, and outdoor excursions should be avoided in high-risk areas where bears have been sighted,” it added.
The announcement comes after a bear killed a man and seriously maimed a woman this week in their home on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar.
The man, in his 40s, and a woman in her 50s were attacked on Wednesday night in their home in the Bayanzurkh district, according to the city’s environment department chief, Munkhbayar M.
A team of 35 rangers, police and thermal imaging drones were deployed to locate and kill the bear.
“The bear was located and neutralised at a site not far from where the fatal incident occurred,” an official from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change told a news conference on Friday.
“Preliminary findings indicate that the bear was a male, approximately six years old and in its prime,” said ministry secretary Batbayar Shurenchuluun.
The government has authorised bear hunting in specifically designated areas and launched an investigation to determine what has caused the rise in sightings.
A bear that was hunted and examined in the eastern province of Khentii was found to have no food in its stomach, officials told reporters on Thursday.
As a result, authorities banned in September the harvesting of nuts and berries from mountainous areas for this year.
Japan has also recorded a sharp rise in bear sightings and attacks on humans in recent years, including in the outskirts of towns and cities.
The causes are complex and include variations in food availability — something potentially linked to climate change — as well as rural depopulation, experts say.
AFP
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