{"id":190549,"date":"2026-06-04T17:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/190549\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:00:55","slug":"officials-play-down-bear-attack-fears-despite-reported-incidents","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/190549\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials play down bear attack fears despite reported incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>June 4, <em>Pozirk.<\/em> <\/strong>Environmental officials appeared to dispute the narrative that the rapid spread of wild bears in Belarus is posing a threat to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two bear attacks on humans have been recorded in Belarus in recent years, but both accounts are hardly credible, Pavie\u0142 Hie\u0161ta\u016dt, deputy director of the Center for Bioresources at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, told reporters Thursday in Minsk. In one of the incidents, people were simply feeding a wild bear, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Hie\u0161ta\u016dt, the bears that stray into villages and cities are usually juveniles lacking the experience to avoid humans. During forest walks, loud talking is enough to keep bears away, he said. He lamented the lack of a centralized database to log human encounters with wild predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alaksandar Kazarez, a departmental head at the forestry ministry, insisted that bear sightings in residential areas are \u201cnothing extraordinary,\u201d noting that young bears are leaving their parents and looking for new habitats in summer. He suggested that people simply stay away from stray animals and report their sighting to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Kazarez, Belarus was home to 1,289 brown bears at the end of 2025. As Hie\u0161ta\u016dt told reporters two years ago, Belarus had about 130 bears in the late 1980s, 240 in 2004, and about 800 in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent reports have highlighted a sharp rise in bear sightings in the Viciebsk and the northern Minsk regions, with animals captured on camera traps wandering near village homes and along the border with the Baltic countries. This unprecedented growth and loss of natural fear among the animals has prompted concerns among locals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In July 2025, Belarusian authorities lifted a ban on bear hunting, citing a rise in the population. The move followed reclassification to a lower-risk category of endangered species. Belarusian environmental group Ecodom criticized the decision and demanded the re-introduction of the ban. Since the 2020 post-election protests in Belarus, hundreds of NGOs have been closed and dozens, including Ecodom, have been branded \u201cextremist groups.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 4, Pozirk. Environmental officials appeared to dispute the narrative that the rapid spread of wild bears in Belarus is posing a threat to humans. Two bear attacks on humans have been recorded in Belarus in recent years, but both accounts are hardly credible, Pavie\u0142 Hie\u0161ta\u016dt, deputy director of the Center for Bioresources at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63993,"template":"","rubric":[15],"class_list":["post-190549","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Officials play down bear attack fears despite reported incidents | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 4, Pozirk. Environmental officials appeared to dispute the narrative that the rapid spread of wild bears in Belarus is posing a threat to humans. 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