Warnings against bears are published by several municipalities these days. The appearance of five individuals was recently reported in Málinc near Poltár. However, problems with larger “groups” of beasts continue in Pribylin and Poniky.
Photo: illustrated by Viera Duchoňová
Bears in larger groups besiege several villages.
The municipality of Málinec has published a notice to which residents should pay extra attention. “In the section from Stupník to Poľovníčka chata, the occurrence of five bears was recorded. We ask citizens to increase caution in the mentioned location, to limit movement especially in the evening and morning hours and not to move alone,” reads the warning.
Similar ones are appearing in other villages these days. Last year, the ponies near Banská Bystrica already fought with “raids” of beasts, of which, according to the head of the village, there were about forty roaming in its vicinity. An encounter with a bear there last July was almost fatal for one of the locals, who ended up in the emergency room. Fortunately, he recovered from his injuries, but the fights with the furry ones continue there.
A vicious circle
Everything points to the fact that it is a vicious circle, because even this year the people of Ponica live in permanent fear because of the beasts. They are afraid to go to the forest, to pick mushrooms or to manage their land. Some say that macs literally peek into their windows.
The mayor of Poník, Jana Ondrejková, confirmed to us that the situation has not changed compared to last year. “It’s like every year here – the bears are already moving closer to our homes. It’s April now, but I assume that it will be most critical again in May and June,” she stated. According to her, people there already, with the arrival of this spring, saw bears with cubs, as well as “solo” males walking along the third-class road.
“One lady said that she was being chased by a bear. Basically, they are steadily walking along our road between the part of Huta and Poniki,” continued Ondrejková. “So it repeats itself. It’s actually a vicious circle,” she pointed out.
Although they had some exemptions for shooting there last year, the mayor is curious if it will progress as it has in previous years. “People really had a problem even leaving the garden, let alone going for a walk,” she recalled. She added that another inconvenience in this regard is the material or financial damage caused to farmers.
Herd in the field
Last year, seven bears also “haunted” the Agricultural Cooperative in Pribylin. Its chairman, Michal Pelach, told us that it is still not “rosy” there. This phenomenon continues to this day. “Last year, they besieged us the whole season. It culminated in the fall, when we already had corn crops. It caused us a lot of damage – they destroyed 25 hectares of corn, which turned into a loss of over 50,000 euros,” he revealed.
According to him, the beasts are still overpopulated. “There are a lot of them. They have woken up and now the bears are coming here with the cubs, the males in heat are running after them,” he assessed. “The intervention team has already shot down two pieces here this year. However, others are still coming and there will probably be more of them. We can only hope that the competent ones will manage it in some way and speed up the regulation,” he noted. If what happened last year is going to happen to them, he doesn’t see it well.
“With the prevailing drought, also with falling milk prices, these are liquidation matters,” reasoned Pelach. He cannot say exactly how many individuals are currently “harassing” them there. “But when the drone was flown here, twenty of them were seen calmly in the field. But that is for a wider discussion,” he pointed out.
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Fortunately, there has been no collision with a person there yet. “The milkmaids start at four in the morning and it is not entirely pleasant when they know that a bear is walking behind the fence. Last year we also found one near the barn, another in the hayloft. The employees simply see them and are stressed about it,” concluded the chairman.
We also turned to Slavomír Jurašek from the Brown Bear Intervention Team with questions. We were interested in what the current situation is there, whether the affected municipalities are monitoring and whether there have been any eliminations in them. Alternatively, whether any blasts are planned in the near future and in what number.
“Pribylina is currently one of the municipalities in which the occurrence of bears near human dwellings is relatively common. Two synanthropic individuals were eliminated in Intavilan this year, which threatened the life and health of the population,” Juraško confirmed the words of the chairman of the cooperative.
“We monitor anthropotolerant individuals who regularly penetrate into the inner city and carry out preventive measures, including aversive therapy – scaring. We do not plan to eliminate them, as this is the last option for solving the problems of individuals,” he clarified. He did not comment on the situation in other villages. “Since they are not within our territorial jurisdiction,” he added.
