Caught on camera: Moment bear emerges from den to maul eco-activist

The disturbed bear emerges and chases campaigner trying to prevent logging in the Bieszczady Mountains. Photo / Supplied

A bear in Poland’s Carpathian Mountains has mauled an eco-activist who was trying to prove the animal’s lair was abandoned due to logging.

The German was airlifted to hospital following the attack and was said to be in a serious but stable condition.

He had travelled to the bear’s den alongside another activist from the Wild Carpathians Initiative to check if the area had been affected by logging.

The pair had expected the lair to be empty but the animal pursued them through the woods. The activist stumbled and fell before being mauled.

Footage of the bear emerging to attack was captured by a camera set up to monitor the lair. It was shared online by Michał Gzowski, a spokesman for the Polish forestry service, who described the incident as an “irony of fate”.

“Pseudo-ecologists were attacking foresters, mountain rescue and policemen, and now these people are saving their lives,” he said.

“Will there be a Darwin Award?” Mr Gzowski added, referring to a tongue-in-cheek prize for people who die in unwise ways.

Getting ready for hibernation

The Wild Carpathians Initiative admitted their activists shouldn’t have disturbed the mammal, which was getting ready for hibernation in the Bieszczady Mountains, which form part of the Outer Eastern Carpathians.

The spokesman said there had been an attack on a forester in the same location last year. Despite that, the forestry service failed to prevent further deforestation there, Jakub Rok said.

Marek Józefiak, an environmental policy officer at Greenpeace, said officials were doing too little to halt the destruction of the forest.

“Poland is protecting the Carpathian mountains poorly. Only 3 per cent of the forest is really protected, the rest is being logged or built on,” he said.

“Despite the fact that most Polish bears live in the Bieszczady Mountains, there are only two special zones for protection of bear dens.”

Recent monitoring by the campaigning organisation found up to 40 trucks loaded with timber were leaving the region each day on just one of the roads leading out of the Carpathians.