Key facts
- The Ministry of Natural Resources set the cull quota at up to 30% of brown bears in each region, RIA reported.
- The ministry said 87 bear attacks killed 36 people in Russia since the start of 2026.
- Regional quotas vary, including 14% on the Kamchatka peninsula and 19% in the Krasnoyarsk region.
- The ministry allocated more than the equivalent of $970,000 to finance culling of bears near people and landfills.
Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources set a maximum cull quota of 30% of the brown bear population in each region, the ministry was quoted as saying by the state RIA news agency on November 13, 2026. The ministry said the limit was intended to better control bear numbers and reduce attacks, and that it had been registered with Russia's Justice Ministry.
The ministry said more than 12,000 reports of brown bears approaching people had been received in Russia since the start of 2026, with 87 attacks and 36 people killed. It said the decision removed limits and set the regional maximum quota at 30%.
The death figure was one more than RIA reported earlier in the week after a security guard was killed at a holiday camp on the Kamchatka peninsula. The ministry put Russia's brown bear population at 308,000 and said quotas varied by region, including 14% on Kamchatka and 19% in the Krasnoyarsk region of western Siberia.
The ministry allocated funds totalling more than the equivalent of $970,000 to finance culling of bears known to approach people and feed at landfills. According to government data cited in the report, the brown bear population has more than doubled in the last three decades, in part because of shorter and milder winters. RIA gave no indication of when the cull was to begin or how long it would remain in effect.