Last week, news spread across Lithuania about a bear cub spotted in the Kupiškis district near the border with Latvia. Over the weekend, Marek Kislovskij shared his own encounter – he had captured footage of a bear near Belarus.
Speaking to LRT.lt, Marek said that while he is neither a hunter nor a naturalist, he spends a lot of time in nature photographing wildlife. One day, he decided to buy a trail camera to observe forest animals. The hobby quickly became a passion, and he now has several cameras set up in different locations.
On March 31, one of his cameras – placed in the forest near Gerviškės in the Šalčininkai district close to the border with Belarus – recorded footage of a bear.
Kislovskij recalled: "When I came to check the camera, I couldn’t believe what I saw at first. I was really surprised to have captured such a shot and, of course, I was thrilled. At the same time, it was a bit unsettling to realise that a bear had recently been walking around in that same area."
Until now, he had never heard of any bear sightings – or even tracks – in the Šalčininkai district.
Take a look at what he had captured.
There has been an increasing number of bear sightings in Lithuania over the past years. The appearance of a bear cub in northern Lithuania also mean that bears have again become a native species in Lithuania.
In case you do meet one on your way, stay calm – do not run, do not shout, do not provoke it and calmly retreat to a safe place.
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