Bears raid village graves

2003-05-09 15:53

Ioannina, Greece - The inhabitants of a Greek village are living in fear after a posse of hungry brown bears vandalised their local graveyard, local press reports said on Friday.

A group of the bears ransacked the cemetery in the remote village of Makrino Zagoriou, damaging the gravestones of deceased locals and drinking oil from the lamps adorning their tombs.

"This is the second time in two months that the bears have come to our village," said local councillor Stiris Spyradakis. "This time nothing was left undisturbed."

Now the villagers fear that the bears, emboldened by their recent adventures, could turn their attention to the living.

The brown bear, or Ursus arctos, only rarely attacks humans. Fruit, berries and roots account for about 75% of its diet.

It is the other 25% the locals are increasingly worried about, according to Spyradakis.

"Now the residents fear for their lives," he said.

Spyradakis criticised measures to protect brown bears taken by local conservation group Arktouros, which has insisted on modifications to a planned motorway crossing the region close to Greece's northwestern border with Albania, home to the southernmost population of the species in Europe.

- AFX