Polar bear filmed running along road in Yakutia 460km south of its natural Arctic habitat

By The Siberian Times reporter

30 March 2021

The racing predator was seen 60km south of Batagai, north-east from republic’s capital Yakutsk.

‘We sent inspectors to check the site where the bear was seen. It happened some 50-60km in the direction of Yakutsk, and 460km from the sea,’ said regional Minister of Ecology Sakhamin Afanasyev

Video of the animal running in front of a car was shared early today on social media and reached the local Ministry of Ecology.

‘What is it doing here?’ people are heard saying to each other.

The animal ignored the driver’s attempt to scare it off the road by hooting as it continued to run.

No other sightings of the bear were so far reported.

Polar bear filmed running along road in Yakutia 460km south of its natural Arctic habitat

polar bears Yakutia

Polar bear filmed running along road in Yakutia 460km south of its natural Arctic habitat. Pictures, video: The Siberian Times, social media

‘We sent inspectors to check the site where the bear was seen. It happened some 50-60km in the direction of Yakutsk, and 460km from the sea,’ said regional Minister of Ecology Sakhamin Afanasyev.

He queried if the polar bear might be a brown bear with light reflecting on it so that its fur looked white; but many locals thought its shape oand the way it moved was unlike a brown bear.

The bear’s tracks were measured and photographed to be shared with an expert in Moscow, said head of biological resources directorate Yakov Sivtsev.

Last time a polar bear wandered so far inland was in September 2017.

A ten month old female polar bear cub was rescued in Verkhoyansk district, some 700 km south from the Arctic coast of Siberia.

Pictures of the 2017 case when a polar bear cub walked miles south from its natural habitat by Yakutia's Ministry of Nature Protection

Polar bear filmed running along road in Yakutia 460km south of its natural Arctic habitat

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This is very unusual and worrying behaviour for this season... We know that polar bears travel hundreds of kilometres inland during the summer and autumn season, when there is little or no snow on the banquise to search for alternative food sources.

Hope and pray that it wasn't a polar bear pet cub which was then abandoned once it got too large to care for and be a cuddly "teddy bear" for unscrupulous owners... Hope that they manage to track it and save it as well, or that it will continue to run back to it's natural habit at the end of the "Yellow Brick Road"...

Bless everyone involved in saving the ten month old female cub in 2017 in the Verkhoyansk district, she looks gorgeous and is fat and healthy at least, even though she was alone and orphaned poor soul. Bless you sweetheart.

Anonymous, Switzerland

02/04/2021 22:28