Shocking Pics of Critically Endangered Brown Bears Living on Garbage Dump

Over three quarters of the diet of Himalayan brown bears in India's Jammu and Kashmir region consists of human garbage, including plastic bags, chocolate wrappers and even curry.

These shocking findings were described in a report by Wildlife SOS, an Indian wildlife conservation charity, and the Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Protection Department. A study gathering this data was carried out over several months in 2021.

Himalayan brown bears, classified as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, are a subspecies of brown bears found across central Asia, ranging between northern Afghanistan to China. They are a sister species to the brown bears, more often called grizzly bears, familiar in the U.S., having evolved into two separate groups around 658,000 years ago.

These bears are usually omnivorous, eating grasses, fruit, berries, roots and other plants as well as animals like sheep and goats. However, if a more convenient food source is available, such as a garbage dump full of human food waste, they will take the easy option.

The study investigated the bears' diet by examining their "scat", or feces. Of the 408 scat samples investigated, 86 were found to contain plastic carrier bags, milk powder, and chocolate wrappers, with some even containing glass shards. A further three-quarters of scat samples contained garbage food items, while just 16 percent contained wild plants and less than one percent contained crops the bears had raided or sheep or goats they had hunted.

These findings were also backed up by a variety of camera trap data that showed the brown bears feeding from garbage dumps, Swaminathan Shanmugavelu, a Wildlife SOS senior biologist, said in a statement. The traps also showed a number of other animal species scavenging for food at the garbage dumps, including red foxes and jackals, as well as dogs, ponies and cattle.

Himalayan brown bears are critically endangered—the report stays there may only be 130 to 220 mature adults left in the wild. Their small population is largely due to poaching, with hunters harvesting their fur and claws for ornaments, and internal organs for use in medicines. They are also killed by farmers to protect their sheep and other livestock.

Eating food waste from human garbage can be incredibly dangerous to the bears, mostly due to them also ending up eating non-edible or even toxic items.

"Camera traps set up by the Wildlife SOS research team revealed that brown bears were feeding on chocolate, plastic covers and other food waste like biryani, a dish that is popular in the area, Swaminathan told Newsweek. "Since these are not a part of the natural diet of these bears—who usually feed on grass, berries, plants and small mammals—these items can be harmful to the gastric intestinal structure of the brown bear. It can cause severe ailments and even shorten their life span."

"Such behaviours can also be passed on from mother to cub leading to a loss in natural foraging traits, impacting the survival rate of the brown bear population in the region."

Plastic bags in particular can clog up the digestive system and prevent real food from being digested.

Additionally, if bears and other wildlife become used to feeding from the easy pickings at garbage dumps, or teach their young the behavior, they will return again and again. If these dumps are near human settlements, as they often are, this leads to an influx of dangerous animals being drawn close to human towns. While this puts the human residents at risk, it also increases the risk to the animals, both from poaching and from people acting in self-defense.

This report highlights the dangers posed by the garbage dumps to the bear populations. Wildlife SOS has recommended a number of actions to the Jammu & Kashmir Development Authority and the Tourism Board, Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO and co-founder of Wildlife SOS, said in a statement. These include the proper disposal of waste, ensuring that garbage dumps are a good distance from human settlements, and bear-proofing the garbage sites with chain-link fences and bin lids.

Update 12/19/22, 8:18 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Swaminathan Shanmugavelu of Wildlife SOS.

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