An Unsettling Sight for Villagers in Greece

June 30, 2003 — Brown bears in the mountains of northwestern Greece have been so successful at reproducing under a recent scheme that isolated villagers have begun barricading themselves in for protection.

Events took a particularly dramatic turn recently in the village of Anilio Metsovou, in the Pindus Mountains near Albania, when an 85-year-old woman was found dead near a sheep pen. Bear-like footprints could be seen near her bloodied body.

Two weeks ago a local newspaper reported how a huntsman from the same village had come face to face with a bear, which attacked his dogs before fleeing.

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Further north, the elderly inhabitants of the isolated village of Makrino Zagoriou have in recent months woken several times to find ancestral graves desecrated after bears came to eat the oil from lamps burning in the cemetery.

Another bear got into a cellar in the village and tore the throats out of two goats before it was chased away by their owner, Achilles Spyridamis.

Now, men of the village mount regular armed patrols while the women no longer dare venture out after sunset. Floodlights and electric fences have been put up to protect gardens and vegetable plots.

Costas Ziabiris, president of the Ipiros Hunters Federation, told local newspapers that "the number of wild animals, in particular bears and wolves, has risen dangerously ... and there will be more human victims unless something is done."

"There isn't enough food for so many wild animals in the region," Ziabiris continued, calling on environmental organizations to assume their responsibilities — in particular the high-profile bear-protection organization Arctouros.

According to Arctouros's scientific director, George Mertzanis, the bears are "having a particularly stressful time" at the moment, following a harsh winter and a consequent lack of food in the wild.

"Given the conditions, bears can't resist going into villages. It's normal; hunters and the locals know this," he told AFP.

Mertzanis is proud of the fact that, thanks to efforts by Arctouros and the local authorities to protect the brown bear, "the population has gone from around 80 10 years ago to 160 today" in the Pindus Mountains, the bears' southern-most habitat.

"Young bears are seeking out new territory and as a result they've been spotted as far south as Mount Parnassus, where they haven't been seen since the 1940's," said Mertzanis.

"The problem is to manage the success and that's the government's job," he said.

He suggested such bear-damage limitation actions as putting up electric fences to protect beehives and introducing specially bred sheep dogs to protect flocks from bears and wolves.