A remote village in Russia has been besieged by over fifty hungry polar bears who are desperately looking for food.
The mass predator invasion occurred in the municipality of Ryrkaypiy where the authorities have placed the remote outpost under lockdown after spotting 56 bears moving in.
Besides the cancellation of all public events, the authorities have also urged people to stay indoors and provided the kids with extra security measures when on the way to or from the school.
In addition, the police have set up patrol guards with the aim of keeping the polar bears at bay.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the reason behind the invasion is climate change which allegedly drove the temperatures up and prevented the bears from obtaining enough food in their natural habitat.
“Nearly all the polar bears are skinny. There are adult bears, adolescents and mother bears with cubs of different ages,” Tatyana Minenko of the WWF Polar Bear Patrol said.
As the locals added, there were polar bears spotted in the region last year but the number this year is higher than ever before.
“The number of human and predator encounters in the Arctic is increasing. The main reason is the decline of sea ice area due to the changing climate. In the absence of ice cover, animals are forced to go ashore in search of food,” WWF claimed in a statement.
According to Minenko and her team, the patrol is working tirelessly to prevent the bears from confronting the locals and vice versa.
“We have created a feeding point with walrus carcasses that we gathered along the coast. As long as there is no big freeze, the sea ice will not form and the bears will stay on the coast,” she added in an interview with RIA Novosti.
While shooting the white giants is illegal in the country, rangers have geared up with rubber bullets to stop the bears if they decide to push closer to the village.
“There are guards on duty next to local kindergarten and school. All public events like preparation for the end of year concerts, rehearsals, and local gatherings were canceled for the duration of the bear ‘invasion.’ Children are driven to school and kindergarten and back home in buses,” The Siberian Times reported.
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends and follow us on Facebook for more news and stories!
Replaced!