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Gary Striker |
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Poaching and
over-fishing threaten Kamchatka's bears. |
The
brown bears of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula are among the
largest of the world’s brown bears. Their attractiveness to
trophy hunters, a great demand for their body parts among
practitioners of traditional Asian medicine and increased access
to remote areas of Kamchatka have all contributed to a
precipitous decline in the bears population since the 1960’s.
According to current estimates, the region’s population of
brown bears is being
poached at an unsustainable rate of 20%
each year.
Brown
bears
have gorged on
thick
pump
salmon in a remote wilderness in Russia for ages. But
poachers
could take away the
halcyon days of
these giants.
The
greatest dilemma bears in the South Kamchatka Sanctuary
used to
face was choosing where to dine. They move from waterway to
waterway, fishing each in turn, depending on where the
sockeyes
are found.
"There's
a large concentration of bears here and the food source is
running
out and they're starting to go into their
roaming
mode," said Bill Leacock of the Wildlife Conservation
Society (WCS), a New York-based
conservation organization.
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The
WCS is working
together with the Russian government on a joint study of
brown bears around Kurilskoe Lake. Most bears move to another to the other side of Kurilskoe Lake
in Kamchatka, a mountainous peninsula in Eastern Russia that
points toward the northern tip Japan. Others
wander to nearby
creeks
where sockeye runs have yet to begin. |
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Feasting on salmon, they build up fat reserves needed for
hibernation. They could not survive the long winter ahead
without healthy salmon runs. "That's really
driving
the whole ecosystem here. And allowing us to maintain high
densities of bears," Leacock said.
Brown bears live in Europe, Asia and North America, but one of
the largest and most densely concentrated populations inhabits
the Russian sanctuary. Russian law protects the bears, close cousins of the American
grizzlies,
but they still face threats from poachers.
"Within the
sanctuary, in a period of
ten days before, we found five poached
bears, including one bear that we captured outside the sanctuary
and put a collar on. He moved nearly 40 miles and was killed and
slit open for his
gallbladder,"
said Leacock.
Bear gallbladders are used in Asian folk remedies and can bring
poachers hundreds of dollars for each organ. Russian authorities
estimate that poachers
slaughter as
many as 2,000 bears die in Kamchatka every year. Trophy
hunters legally kill hundreds more. The
onslaught
has caused a dramatic
drop in the bear population, reducing the
number to between 6,000 and 10,000. |
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"Even if we have a population of 10,000 bears here, there's
a real danger that the densities could really drop if these
trends continue," Leacock said. The bears face another
threat as
well. Fish poachers could
overharvest the salmon,
wiping
out the bears' major source of food. The joint study seeks to find conservation measures that can
save Kamchatka's brown bears. |
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Source:
CNN
Environmental Correspondence |
GLOSSARY |
poached: illegally hunt
(cazada furtiva o ilegalmente)
trophy hunters: hunters in search of an award for success in
hunting (cazadores de trofeos)
have gorged on :
have eaten,
had
fed
on (se han saciado de)
plump salmon: fat salmon (salmones regordetes)
poachers: illegal hunters (cazadores furtivos)
halcyon days: idyllic times (días tranquilos, tiempos
pacíficos)
used to face: used to deal with (solían enfrentar)
sockeyes: fatty red salmon of Pacific coast and rivers
(salmones rojos)
running out: becoming
exhausted
(agotándose)
roaming mode: wandering about
again
(búsqueda de alimento)
wander to: move towards
(se desplazan hacia) |
creeks: natural streams of water
(riachos)
feasting on: having a banquet
on
(al alimentarse de)
driving: regulating
(regulando)
grizzlies: North-American
bears
(osos grises norteamericanos)
sanctuary: protected
area
(santuario, área protegida)
slit open: cut through
(degollado)
gallbladder: an organ next to the liver
(vesícula)
slaughter: kill
(matan, asesinan)
onslaught: offensive
(arremetida, ofensiva)
drop: fall,
a sudden sharp decrease in some quantity
(caída, reducción)
threat: danger (peligro, amenaza)
overharvest: harvest in excess (pescar
excesivamente)
wiping out: exhausting
(eliminando) |
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MAS "ECOLOGIA - VIDA SILVESTRE"
FORO
INICIO |
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