Hungry bears in Russia are slaughtered for fat to export to Asian countries.

Since autumn, bears have been coming out en masse to humans in search of food. What’s more, there turned out to be a colossal number of small cubs whose parents have already been shot by hunters! The media everywhere shouted that there were too many bears, and officials, in turn, actively promoted the “agenda” of legalizing the killing of bears all winter.

Let me remind you that they tried to push this initiative in the summer of 2024, but with our efforts, we managed to stop the bill. In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources successfully extended the bear hunting season up to December 31 — during the bears’ hibernation period. Neither the arguments about hunger in the Russian Taiga nor the fact that female bears are pregnant and many will give birth right in their dens stopped them.

And now it’s already January 2025. Winter!

Right now, the publication “Mash” published the news, I quote in full:

“The most Russian news on Christmas is that bear fat has become more expensive due to the bears’ hungry year.

Natural disasters spared no one, not even the forest king. Hunters claim that he was not in the best shape by the time he went into hibernation. The price of a liter of bear fat rose from 10 to 13k rubles in December 2024. In the Arctic, they ask 15k for the product.

In Central Russia, spring frosts are to blame: because of them, there was too little bilberry and lingonberry. In the Far East — severe summer heat. Bears went into hibernation later and did not gain enough fat: previously, one could get five liters of fat from an average carcass, but now — no more than three. In addition, prices for hides have gone up: they used to cost 25–30k, and now it’s all 70.”

Everything we talked about has turned out to be completely true! The bears are hungry, there is no food supply, and they are simply being stupidly slaughtered. Moreover, if before bears were killed for the export of “bear paws” to China for traditional Chinese medicine, as well as to extract their bile, now a new trend is gaining popularity — “bear fat.”

For context: throughout 2024, the media actively wrote about the growing popularity of bear fat in Russia. I will quote a major Far Eastern publication “PrimaMedia”:

Title: “Trepang, bear fat, and ginseng: dietary supplements from Primorye are gaining popularity”

“After the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for dietary supplements (BAA) has increased. Now they are massively becoming export items <…> It is noteworthy that Primorye dietary supplements made of natural ingredients are actively exported. Exports have grown in the last two years.”

“More and more entrepreneurs are offering to the world market goods containing active additives with extracts from marine hydrobionts, endemic species of the Primorye taiga, with trepang extract, ascidia, ginseng. The exporting countries are the Republic of Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Serbia,” — the press service of the Primorye Ministry of Economic Development reported.”

“Fairly often you come across the partisan brand ‘Doctor More.’ It specializes in supplements from marine components: Japanese kelp and brown algae, sea scallop, salmon fish milt, squid ganglia, sea urchin roe, crustaceans, and shells.

The Vladivostok brand ‘Biotik Lux’ among other things offers chaga extract, as well as bear fat.

The Vladivostok company ‘Primorskoe zdorovie’ creates dietary supplements from the hydrobionts of crustaceans, mollusks, and algae, honey-antler raw materials, plants, and berries. On pharmacy and store shelves, you can find a biocomplex from mussel meat, seal fat, graviola (guanabana) extract, reishi mushroom, Amur cork tree fruits, schisandra, ginseng, Trametes versicolor, lion’s mane mushroom, and cordyceps, as well as dried deer blood, antlers in honey, and deer antlers.”

Also, in other media, they are actively “savoring” comments from various “doctor-experts” that one should treat colds and other diseases with parts of wild animals.

“Rubbing with badger or bear fat, which have anti-inflammatory effects, will also help in treating colds.”

This is the problem. Animals are starving, there is no food, and against this backdrop, officials demand the adoption of laws to kill bears all winter; hunters report an “excessively growing population,” while the market is flooded with products from wild animals.

As you read above, it’s not only in Russia but also exported (with growing demand over the past two years) to Asian countries — dried deer blood, bear fat, and parts of other animals.

Now the publication “Mash” reports on the rising price of bear fat, which is due not only to the bears’ hunger but, first and foremost, to growing demand! True, the publication blames the bears’ hunger on natural disasters. An extremely amateurish position.

No one is talking about the large-scale degradation of ecosystems due to humanity’s destructive activities! Our forests are rapidly being sold off into private hands, either for logging or for organizing sports and recreational hunting. To the extent that officially a third of all publicly accessible forest lands have already been handed over into private hands for shooting “live targets.”

Even wild Kamchatka, protected lands — those, too, have been divided among themselves into hunting grounds. I previously published maps: all of Kamchatka is continuous hunting estates, while protected areas just get lost among them.

So it turns out that there is real hunger in the Russian Taiga, climate anomalies are intensifying, and instead of introducing a moratorium on sport hunting, on the contrary, we are increasing the scale of wildlife exploitation, driving around the hunting grounds and shooting unhappy animals.

Naturally, predators whose last chance at survival is taken away by people will go to populated areas in search of food in winter.

A good reason to increase the number of quotas for shooting bears, push for killing the master of the Russian Taiga, who sleeps in his den all winter, and then dismember him and sell him to China and other Asian countries.

And all of this is united by one thing: the desire to make instant profits by destroying and pillaging the already torn-to-shreds Russian Taiga.

WHAT ARE THEY NOT TALKING ABOUT?

Only for the 2025 hunting season did the authorities in the regions allow over 42 thousand bears to be killed throughout the country. Before that, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the FSB of Russia spoke out in defense of the bears and even mentioned the need to include them in the Red Book! But the scandal was hushed up, and every year more and more bears have been killed.

These processes are going on gradually, increasing quotas year after year. In parallel, the paid killing industry is growing, sport hunting is developing, and now foreign “trophy hunters” have begun to come to our country en masse to kill wild animals in the Russian Taiga.

We are counting the quotas issued for specific regions. Check the data in our registry!

Study the information

Now pay attention to one more thing. A license to kill a bear in Russia costs only 3,000 rubles + a state fee for its issuance of 650 rubles. In total 3,650 for the life of the master of the Russian Taiga.

Now read again the information from the publication “Mash” — even considering the hungry, skinny bears, you can “get” three liters of fat at 15,000 rubles each from one animal + a hide at 75 thousand rubles. So, by dismembering a bear killed for 3.6 thousand rubles, you can get at least 120,000 rubles! You can still sell bear meat; “bear meat” is now served in restaurants, and there is even an established sale of delicacies in retail chains. You can extract “bear bile,” which is also very expensive!

Realistically, by killing one bear, you can earn about 150,000 rubles. Minus expenses for gasoline and the license, you get 120-130 thousand rubles clean in hand!

Once again: 42 thousand individuals were allowed to be killed by the authorities only in 2025.

This is such a tragic bear fate in our country. I do not understand at all how we dare to ravage the last corners of the wild, to kill the master of the Russian Taiga for the extraction of bile and fat, and then sell it all on the Chinese market.

What kind of people are we?

© PAVEL PASHKOV