Everything was peaceful in the Russian meteorologist base in the island Troynoy, off of the coast of Russia. That all changed when the polar bears attacked. Like a scene ripped off of an original movie from the SiFi channel, 10 adult polar bears with four cubs swarmed around the base, taking it under siege.
It all began as a simple experiment measuring ocean levels in the old crumbling Soviet Russian base. Two dogs were posted to help deter any bears from getting near the base, and the scientists were armed with flare guns, and guns loaded with rubber bullets to scare the bears away. Things went awry when a female polar bear approached with her cub and mauled one of the dogs, Matilda, almost instantly killing her. The five scientists tried to scare off the female polar bear with the flares and rubber bullets, but the other polar bears soon came, and the guns soon ran out of ammo. Some of the scientists have some privately owned guns, but shooting a polar bear -- which is an endangered species -- is illegal, unless in self-defense. What constitutes self-defense is a rather gray area, and many of the scientists are afraid of the legal consequences.
At first, the scientists tried to continue their experiments, which included leaving the base and going to the ocean coast to measure the water levels. They contacted their superiors, who initially said to use their own discretion, but when the female polar bear began sleeping right outside the window, they decided against it. They asked again if they should continue the experiments, and their superiors advised against it -- if they must, bring the dog and stay in groups of at least two people. They were being shipped supplies, including more flare guns and three puppies, which was going to take up to a month to arrive. The shipping process was luckily sped up with the use of a helicopter, which also helped to scare off the bears, at least for a while.
The question still arises, why did this happen? A similar event to this happened just last year when five polar bears took another base under siege on another island off the coast of Russia called Vaygach. And events like this are likely to continue to happen, with only more and more frequency. This is because as the ice caps are melting, the land and supplies for the polar bears to live off of, especially in the summer months, are becoming more and more scarce. So polar bears are beginning to group up in bigger and bigger groups out of desperation to try and scavenge for supplies. And since the bases have potential supplies like food, they are going to try and get that food they desperately need to survive.
This is yet another symptom of our mistreatment of the environment. This is endangering these Russian scientists' lives and leading more and more to the eventual extinction of polar bears, which, on top of older diseases making a comeback due to the melting of the ice tundras, is beginning to show a more bleak future if nothing is done about global warming.
