Thermal camera in Slovakia spots 26 bears at once in a cornfield

Forester Tibor Földes used a thermal imaging camera to film 26 bears at the same time in a cornfield near the Slovak village of Očová — an unprecedented gathering of predators for the area. He shot the footage in recent days and posted it on Facebook, confirming that all the animals were in the field at the very same moment.

According to forestry officials, there has been little natural food for predators in the forests this autumn, so bears are increasingly coming down to fields and human settlements. Slovakia's State Nature Conservation authority has warned residents to be more careful near cornfields specifically because of the heightened bear activity: farm machinery working during the harvest often startles animals hiding in the tall stalks.

Besides cornfields, bears also turn up in gardens and orchards in the autumn, drawn by fruit that has fallen to the ground. Experts advise against leaving fruit lying around for long, warning that easily accessible food can train an animal to keep returning to the same spot.

In mid-September, in northern Slovakia near the town of Martin, two bear attacks on people happened in quick succession. In the village of Necpaly, a bear seriously injured a shepherd tending livestock, while in the village of Blatnica a 79-year-old woman was attacked by a bear.

A week earlier, a female bear had attacked a flock of sheep several times in a row in the village of Turčianske Kľačany in the Martin district. In the first attack the predator injured or killed around 15 sheep, and after a second attack it had to be shot.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz