Mother bear and her cub are shot dead after swimming on board Russian nuclear submarine
- Footage shows brown bears being shot off the side of a submarine in Kamchatka
- Russian navy called in an animal specialist to dispatch the animals on Sunday
- Military said the bears posed a threat to themselves and to the local populace
- The brown bears are among more than 50 shot this year, forestry agency said
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
A mother bear and her cub have been shot dead after swimming aboard a Russian nuclear submarine.
Footage taken by a witness shows the animals sitting on the deck before tumbling into the water after a shotgun is fired.
‘There’s no other way,’ the cameraman says. ‘If you chase it out, it’ll wander into the villages. That’s how you fight bears in Kamchatka.’
The brown bears perched on the side of the nuclear submarine in the naval base on the Kamchatka Peninsula before they were shot
The animals before being shot off the side of the submarine by a specialist with a shotgun
The bears, or at least one of the bears, can be seen toppling over the side of the submarine, left, and after it plunged into the water, right
The bears are seen approaching the submarine to clamber aboard before meeting their fateful end
The animals swam across Krasheninnikov Bay and clambered onto the nuclear vessel close to the village of Rybachiy, where the Navy’s Pacific Fleet has a base.
A representative of the fleet said that the brown bears posed a threat to the sailors as well as the local populace and a qualified specialist was called to dispatch the animals.
A pro-military outlet said the mother bear ‘was very emaciated and wounded and the cub would allegedly become aggressive without its mother.’
The group added that the villagers were being harassed by the animals, The Moscow Times reported.
Russian Navy Pacific Fleet Tupolev Tu-142MZ strategic antisubmarine warfare aircraft earlier this year at the base on the Kamchatka Peninsula
The dead bears add to a toll of more than 50 of the animals killed since the start of the year, the forestry agency told Interfax.
Around 14,000 brown bears live on the remote Kamchatka peninsula and occasionally they attack humans if they feel threatened.
Bears can also become dangerous if they stumble on food in settlements because they will associate humans with an easy meal.