After the incident, he was evacuated to the hospital in serious condition, Telegraph reports.
According to preliminary data, the victim, together with a representative of the Wild Carpathians Initiative, was checking the forest for deforestation. Despite the assumption that the bear’s shelter would be empty, the animal was nearby and attacked the activist, who lost his balance and received serious injuries.
A camera installed to monitor the shelter captured the moment of the attack. The recording was published by Polish forest service spokesman Michal Grzowski, who called the incident an “irony of fate.”
The Wild Carpathians Initiative admitted that its activists had made a mistake, noting that they should not have disturbed the bear as it prepared to sleep in the Brzeszczady Mountains. The organization’s representative also recalled last year’s attack on a forester in the same area, expressing dissatisfaction with the forest service’s insufficient measures to prevent logging.
“Pseudo-ecologists threw mud at foresters, mountain rescuers, and police officers, and now these people are saving their lives,” commented Michal Grzowski.
Greenpeace ecologist Marek Jozefiak stressed that Poland is poorly protecting the Carpathians. He argues that only 3 percent of the forest is protected, with the rest being cleared or developed.
He also noted that, even though most Polish bears live in the Brzeszczady Mountains, there are only two special zones to protect bear refuges. The latest monitoring carried out by the organization revealed that up to 40 trucks filled with felled wood leave the Carpathians every day.