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2026-10-02 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Are animal rights activists to blame? Why have bear numbers tripled?

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Elizaveta Novikova

Animal rights in Russia?? Is such a thing permitted? More bears news here.

[Regnum] Bears continue to approach people. From September 22 to 28 alone, the Krasnoyarsk Unified Dispatch Service received 122 reports of bears and their tracks.

In Tuva, an encounter ended in death. On September 22, a bear attacked a group of fishermen in the Todzhinsky District. 62-year-old Alexander Kuzmenko, a renowned children's hockey coach, suffered serious injuries and later died in the hospital. Shortly before, regional authorities reported ten bear sightings near villages and shepherds' camps in just one week.

And the problem isn't going away. Dangerous animals are becoming more numerous, appearing in places they were once rare, and conflicts between them and humans are growing.

There are currently almost 308,000 brown bears in Russia. In 1990, their population was approximately 130,000. Over the past 36 years, their numbers have more than doubled.

Over the decades, attitudes toward this predator have changed several times. In the 1990s, hunting pressure increased, and trophies became part of the illegal trade. At the same time, an animal rights movement was developing in the country: they sought to ban den hunting and rescue orphaned bear cubs.

In 2009, supporters of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) collected over 40,000 signatures against winter den hunting. Two years later, the rules changed. Maria Vorontsova, director of the fund's Russian office, said at the time that the conservation organization (which ceased operations in Russia in 2019) had been seeking a ban since 1995.

"We are very pleased that our efforts to combat this barbaric hunting of bear dens have been successful," Vorontsova said after the new regulations were adopted.

But was animal rights a factor in the bear population's rise? And why did an animal protected as rare in some regions continue to be actively hunted in others?

Regnum News Agency investigated how the protection, hunting, and population of brown bears in Russia have changed over the past decades.

SECURITY WAS TIGHTENED, BUT THE SPOILS GREW.
In the 1990s, a modern system for protecting rare species began to take shape in Russia. In 1995, the federal law "On the Animal World" was adopted. Regional Red Data Books began appearing even earlier.

For example, the Red Data Book of Tatarstan was established in 1993, and the first edition was published in 1995. At that time, the brown bear was a rare species in the republic: its population was estimated at only a few dozen individuals.

Experts cited deforestation and poaching as factors limiting its distribution. Consequently, the bear was listed in the regional Red Data Book and its harvesting was banned.

In 1996, the Saylugem population of brown bears was listed separately in the Red Book in the Altai Republic—a small, isolated group for which special protection measures were envisaged.

However, the brown bear was not listed in the federal Red Book. Regional protection could be granted to either individual populations or the species itself.

This sporadic appearance in the Red Data Books did not mean that the Russian brown bear was considered an endangered species. It was part of a new conservation system that allowed for the separate protection of rare populations and species in specific regions.

According to zoologist and candidate of biological sciences Mikhail Krechmar, bans alone were not enough if there was still demand for the products.

"Regional and federal Red Data Books have no impact whatsoever on the scale of culling. They only matter when imposing construction restrictions or technical regulations," he says.

However, bear hunting did not decrease in the 1990s.

"BEARS WERE SHOT EN MASSE"
After the collapse of the USSR, the old hunting system began to collapse, and a new demand for bears emerged.

This was particularly noticeable in the Far East. Research into the bear bile trade shows that after 1991, the industry grew sharply. The authors attributed this to the opening of borders, the relaxation of government controls, and the dire economic situation of local residents. In the 1990s, thousands of bear gall bladders were smuggled out of Russia annually.

At the same time, legal hunting also developed. In Kamchatka, demand for bear hunting grew in the 1990s, including from foreign tourists. Some hunting grounds in the region issued over 500 licenses, and the harvest reached several hundred animals per season.

According to Kretschmar, bears remained in demand on the illegal market, with bile and paws particularly prized.

"In the 1990s, bear hunting products were in demand, even though this demand was illegal. The general population's income was very, very low, and China was buying the bile and paws," the specialist explains.

"Bears were shot en masse throughout their range. Some were licensed, some were not. Poaching was rampant, and there was no oversight of the hunting grounds," says Kretschmar.

According to him, it was virtually impossible to accurately assess the scale of illegal mining. The trade was judged by large shipments of bile and paws seized at the border.

The expert emphasizes: “There was an increase in hunting pressure in the 1990s, but a decline occurred in the early 2000s,” he says.

Official statistics indicate that legal harvesting remained significant in the late 1990s: 2,443 brown bears were harvested in Russia in the 1996/1997 season, 2,488 in 1997/1998, and 2,730 in 1998/1999.

Conservation and harvesting coexisted in the 1990s. Legislation became stricter, and individual populations received additional protection, but economic interest remained high in some regions.

And at the same time, another discussion has emerged – no longer about how many bears can be harvested, but about how to change the hunt itself.

HUNTING IS PROHIBITED IN THE DEN
One of the most notable campaigns was the fight against bear den hunting.

Since the 1990s, IFAW has supported the work of biologist Valentin Pazhetnov, who rescued and rehabilitated orphaned bear cubs. At the same time, the foundation advocated for changes to hunting regulations.

The reason for the campaign was explained by Sergei Pazhetnov, head of the Center for the Rescue of Orphaned Bear Cubs.

"Until recently, the main method of hunting was in the bear's den during hibernation. This is the simplest and most brutal form of hunting. Without their mother, the cubs die in just a few hours," Pazhetnov said.

According to him, the center has been working for many years to ban such hunting in conjunction with IFAW, which has been fighting this practice since the mid-1990s.

In 2009, activists collected more than 40,000 signatures against den hunting.

In 2010, the Ministry of Natural Resources approved new hunting regulations. Winter bear den hunting was banned. For animal rights activists, this was the concrete result of a long-standing campaign—a change to a specific provision of hunting legislation.

But it's wrong to assume that this campaign alone led to an increase in the overall Russian bear population. The ban applied to a specific harvest method. Overall population fluctuated simultaneously under the influence of other factors—the actual harvest volume, the state of the prey base, and natural reproduction.

And this is important for understanding the entire situation. Animal rights activists did influence hunting regulations, but the population growth began against the backdrop of much broader changes in hunting management.

WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE 2000S?
According to Kretschmar, the turning point occurred in the early 2000s. Hunting pressure began to ease. The economics of the bear trade also changed. The products that had previously brought in money for hunters gradually lost value. As a result, fewer bears were harvested, and the permitted quotas were increasingly not harvested.

"The Soviet planning system was based on the idea that bears were a liquid commodity—their pelts were exported, their meat processed. Now, no one wants bears—their meat is unused, and neither are their pelts. This explains the catastrophic underharvesting. I don't know how to stimulate increased harvesting other than by paying bounties," says Kretschmar.

Today, this gap is clearly visible in official statistics. In 2025, hunters were allowed to harvest almost 47,000 bears, but they actually harvested only about 12,700. Depending on the region, approximately 10–30% of the permitted number was harvested. The established limit alone does not mean that hunters will harvest it entirely.

"In any given region, we have a quota compliance rate of no more than 40% of those issued. More often than not, it's 10-20%. And these unused quotas are an additional source of population growth. In other words, we're driving the bear population growth ourselves by not meeting the quotas," says Kretschmar.

Alexander Savchenko, head of the Department of Hunting Resources and Nature Conservation at Siberian Federal University, points out several other changes that have occurred in hunting.

According to him, it has become more complex and less accessible: deadlines have been shortened, the organization of the hunt has changed, and the hunting grounds have become more fragmented. In some areas, a single hunter must deal with several hunting users simultaneously.

Current regulations stipulate that a bear harvest application may include no more than two consecutive periods totaling up to 30 calendar days. Savchenko believes this is significant for the taiga: hunting requires time, experience, and preparation.

Another factor, in his opinion, is the changing generation of hunters. "The older generation of hunters is leaving, and young people are becoming less and less interested in this type of hunting," says Savchenko.

According to the expert, the economic value of hunted animals has also changed. Previously, meat, hide, fat, and other products had clear economic uses. Now, demand for them is significantly lower, and previous distribution channels have been curtailed.

As a result, an imbalance arises: the bear has become less sought after as a hunting target, but its numbers have continued to grow.

WHY HAS THE BEAR POPULATION INCREASED TO 308,000?
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, there were approximately 130,000 brown bears in Russia in 1990. By 2026, that number had risen to 307,900.

But comparing these two figures alone is insufficient. Over the past 36 years, hunting regulations, the condition of the hunting grounds, the food supply, and the harvest volume have all changed. Furthermore, estimating the population of large animals cannot be completely accurate.

"Any accurate census of large mammals has a margin of error of 25%. It's impossible to count bears in the taiga. Government agencies use data provided to them by local authorities and hunting farms, but this is an absolute ceiling. There's simply no research being conducted on bear ecology in the country right now," the specialist says.

He believes that growth is not only due to a reduction in production.

"Now the population growth is also occurring naturally—all animal populations around the world are subject to cyclical fluctuations, and bear populations are clearly on the rise. The average litter size of female bears is growing, and the average number of bear encounters along routes is increasing," he says.

Savchenko also draws attention to how the relationship between humans and bears has changed.

According to him, in the Yenisei region of Siberia from the 1960s to the 1980s, people were constantly present in the bear's habitat—making hay, gathering wild plants, fishing, and hunting. Crop failures and food shortages occurred even then, but he observed no mass bear outings near populated areas.

The point is, it wasn't just the bear that changed. The people around it changed, too—their lifestyle, their way of life, and their attitude toward hunting.

SECURITY IS ONLY PART OF THE STORY
The history of the Russian bear after the collapse of the USSR cannot be reduced to the simple formula "Red Data Books appeared - there were more bears."

Animal rights organizations have indeed achieved concrete changes. The most notable example is the long-running campaign against den hunting, which resulted in a change in the rules.

But there is no evidence that this campaign or the very appearance of the Red Data Books led to a doubling of the brown bear population in Russia.

Other processes simultaneously influenced the population: in the 2000s, actual harvesting decreased, demand for products declined, some of the permitted quotas were no longer used, and the population continued to grow naturally.

However, bear protection has not disappeared, the task has simply changed.

While in the 1990s and 2000s the discussion centered on changing hunting regulations, today regions are forced to find a balance between preserving the population and ensuring human safety.

As a reminder, Regnum News Agency previously investigated why bears are increasingly encountering humans and how Russian regions are trying to address this problem. In the fall of 2026, the animals were spotted near villages, schools, roads, and tourist routes, and in several regions, encounters with them resulted in fatalities.

Authorities are responding with restrictions, hunter patrols, and increased population control, but experts disagree on the causes of the situation, citing population growth, a lack of natural food, access to food scraps, and reduced hunting pressure.

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