Published July 25, 2008 06:55PM
One big, brown bear is terrifying enough on its own, but can you imagine being surrounded by 30 of them? All of whom are hungry? In Russia?!
It sounds like the best horror movie never made: 30 starving bears have trapped a team of geologists at a remote survey site on the Kamchatka Peninsula. This is after one of them — a 1,500-lb. male — already chased down, killed, and ate two of their colleagues.
Scientists think the bears have turned into deliberate man-eaters because of a shortage in the fish and small animals that make up their regular diet.
A spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry said: ‘The people inside are scared by the invasion of bears. The bears are hungry – for some reason there is not enough food for them this summer.’
To complicate matters even more, bad weather has kept helicopter rescue crews out of the area, and though a rescue team in an all-terrain vehicle is on the way, they must wait for government approval before they can shoot the bears. The tension builds.
In true horror movie style, the bear-terror might be a side effect of human activity: Widespread fish poaching is thought to have sent the bears into human territory in search of garbage. Now, people are on the menu.
Eek. Look out for NightBear: The Bruination at a theater near you in 2009.
— Ted Alvarez
Man-eating bears kill two scientists and lay siege to survivors trapped in remote forest base (Daily Mail)