In Belobrand, in its mountains of Kosovoresidents double-lock their doors to avoid unwanted visitors: Cafes bears who roam the streets during the day and have forced the local school to call the police for help.
The village of 700 inhabitants, on the Kosovo-Albanian border, is surrounded by forests and it is not unusual to see a bear foraging, especially on cold winter days. But this year, it seems the bears didn’t wait for the cold to come.
“I saw them day and night, roaming around the village as if they were domestic animals,” said Gezim, a resident who did not want to reveal his surname.
In several videos taken by residents making the rounds online, the bears walk in pairs, exploring gardens and overturning furniture in search of food. Two of them were caught red-handed opening large white sacks containing sugar or flour in a warehouse.
The primary school of the village, for its part, asked the police to “immediately take measures to exterminate or remove the bears that appeared on the borders of our municipality”.
Brown bears are a protected species in Kosovo, but the school says the presence of the wild animals “poses a serious risk to students, teaching staff and all residents of the village”. It is too dangerous to be out and about in the morning and evening when students are going to or leaving school, the teachers said in their open letter.
Besset Gelandini, the mayor of Dragas, which includes Belobrand, asked for the help of the local hunting club to protect the residents. The hunters agreed, in cooperation with municipal authorities, to monitor the area and report any bear sightings in residential zones.