Siberian officials have issued warnings to mourners in Russia to be wary of staving bears. Brown and black bears have been desecrating graves in the area in a desperate search for food, according to the UK's Daily Mail.
The Komsomolsk-on-Amur cemetery has hired armed guards to protect funerals from the hungry bears. Several graves have already been destroyed by bears, who are forced to eat human remains and anything else they can find. Normally, the wild bears around Siberia eat mushrooms and berries.
The bears are drawn to fresh graves because of an old Russian tradition. It's a sign of respect to leave food next to a relative's grave. Bears have been seen eating the cookies and candies left graveside.
Hunters already killed a brown bear who repeatedly attacked one cemetery, according to the Siberian Times. It is legal to hunt bears in Russia, against protests from animal rights groups.
These bears are not normally aggressive, but locals fear that they will venture into more inhabited areas in search of food, according to the Daily Mail. Siberian brown bears will eat almost anything, from roots and insects to dead bodies. Through most of central Europe, they are listed as an endangered species. Russia, however, has a large population of brown bears. Around 100,000 brown bears live throughout Russia.
