Bear attacks in Slovakia: there is no escape when the wild animal already connects people and food

The Slovak government has approved the bill on the elimination of problematic bears, but this will not stop the predators. Last year, a total of 14 brown bears attacked people in our northern neighbor, and this year, in the four months so far, more than ten times. In recent days, two more bear attacks have been registered in Slovakia. The last time was on Sunday, when a volunteer firefighter was bitten on the leg by the wild animal.

According to the proposal, by amending the Nature Conservation and Civil Protection Act, a state of emergency could be declared in the event of bear attacks, such as during an earthquake or terrorist attack. If the animal’s behavior endangers the lives, health and property of people, the Ministry of Environmental Protection can grant permission to release it.

According to László Horvát, the head veterinarian of the Veresegyházi Bear Home, the problem in Slovakia now is that the number of bears has increased and the capacity of each habitat is limited. But he also pointed out that the human influence is significant, for example, with hikers deviating from the designated tourist route. In this case, there is a risk that a person will get so close to the bear unnoticed that a conflict is unavoidable. The problem is that the bear cannot detect the tourist in time.

“A general mistake is that in places where you can meet a bear in the forest, everyone tries to be careful and move quietly. This is the worst possible tactic, since the bear has very good senses and does not necessarily want to meet us. If there are several of us and we are talking , God forbid, sometimes we jingle a set of keys, clap our hands to draw the attention of a nearby bear to ourselves, then it won’t come to us, because it doesn’t want to meet us,” said the specialist.

At the same time, he also drew attention to the fact that if we enter the animal’s safety zone unnoticed, it will no longer run away, because we are so close to it that it will attack us. “Not to hurt or harm us, but a 350-400 kilo bear runs through us, it hurts. It wants to scare us, but we stand in its way and

in such cases, many people make the mistake of running away, but in a predatory animal, running away always triggers an attack instinct”

explained László Horvát. Therefore, he advises that if you encounter a wild animal and it is absolutely unavoidable that you come into contact, it is best to turn towards the animal and move relatively slowly to retreat from its personal space. In addition, if we have food, it can be put down, because the bear will deal with it, not with us, since its aim is not to do any harm to us, “we are not potential food for it”.

This is the point, so that the bear learns about the “intruder” as soon as possible, then it will surely escape. “He doesn’t want to meet me, I’m not food for him, but I’m bothering him. The bear is a very good indicator species, as he likes peace. The reason why bears haven’t spread so much here is because the bear likes quiet, large, contiguous forest blocks, and we have relatively few such it’s an undisturbed place,” said the veterinarian.

According to László Horvát, the socialization of bears is also a problem, because they often visit waste yards in settlements, and if a mother bear introduces her cubs into such a waste yard, then

growing animals will have the natural behavior of looking for food in garbage, and garbage is around human settlements.

“The trouble with these bears is that they see people, they meet people, they are obviously busy with food, but they absolutely connect people and food,” explained the specialist, but added that the fact that people are curious also plays a role in accidents. on these animals, and they venture closer and closer to them, when sooner or later this results in injury, “these bears are declared man-eating bears, then they have to be destroyed in some way, or they try to relocate them”.

According to László Horvát, the problem in the latter case is that such a bear, which is used to looking for food near people, can be put to sleep and taken to an unknown place, but the first thing it will do is to search a man inhabited a settlement, since he learned that there is always an unlimited amount of food there in winter and summer, so these animals are a danger in the future as well.