Rhodope Village of Gyovren Sees Increasing Wandering of Bears Into the Settlement

The human-bear conflicts in the Rhodope Mountains continues. The latest example comes from the village of Gyovren, in Devin Municipality, where two young bears have been turning up almost every night for several weeks. What measures have the authorities taken, and is peaceful coexistence between bears and people possible?

Bear visits are the most talked-about subject in Gyovren. Almost everyone in the village has encountered the animals.

Ahmed Imamska, a resident of the village of Gyovren: “Three days ago, early in the morning, I was coming here to the mosque. I live nearby, in that house there. I went down this way and went inside without bothering them. They were little bears.”

BNT: Have you seen the bears that come here?

Shukri Ekiz, a resident of the village of Gyovren: “Yes, I live at the edge of the village and I encounter them quite often. They don't come here to eat people; we're the ones who are afraid of them. Perhaps the bears aren't to blame.”

Jamile Imamska, a resident of the village of Gyovren: “The bear—it was right there. I was just about to go get some bread; I was just about to go down the hill when I saw it heading down from there.”

Jamal Urukov, a resident of the village of Gyovren: “No matter how young these bears are, they still pose a danger. We have small children. One was wandering around the village centre at 6am, and the schoolchildren set off for school at 6.30am. We hope more serious measures will be taken.”

For now, the authorities’ decision is to capture the bears and relocate them far away from people.

Georgi Georgiev, expert at the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water – Smolyan: “Work is currently under way to capture these animals and possibly relocate them. The lead institutions are the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Executive Forest Agency and the Trigrad State Forestry Enterprise. We are providing support, including equipment such as camera traps and capture traps.”

Snezhana Chavdarova, mayor of Gyovren: “The good news is that the bears have not entered the village for the past three evenings, and none have been spotted inside the settlement. There was a sighting last night down at the entrance to the village, but outside the village itself. We hope the problem will be resolved soon.”

The environmental inspectorate explained that the bears are mainly drawn towards people in search of food. This is also why reports of damage to livestock, beehives and fruit trees tend to increase in autumn, when the animals are preparing for hibernation. According to the inspectorate, however, damage reported this year is 30 per cent lower than last year.

To help reduce the conflict, the Smolyan environmental inspectorate has secured European funding for equipment.

Georgi Georgiev, expert at the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water – Smolyan: “The equipment includes 80 electric fences to prevent bear attacks, as well as a tranquiliser rifle, rifles used to fire deterrent and marking rounds, camera traps and thermal binoculars.”

The equipment has not yet been delivered. Residents of Gyovren, however, doubt that electric fencing will solve their problem.

Jamal Urukov, resident of Gyovren: “Electric fences would help if we could fence the bears in, but I don't think there's any chance of fencing off the village.”

Snezhana Chavdarova, mayor of Gyovren: “We know where they enter the village. Where could we put up these electric fences? There's no way we can fence off the entire village.”

The annual bear count in the Western Rhodope Mountains is due to take place next week. The monitoring is carried out by the Executive Environment Agency.