Welcome back to scary bear attacks! Today’s episode takes us to the remote Siberian wilderness. A beautiful and wild place that we have visited in prior episodes, the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia’s far east. The area is known as the Kronotsky Wildlife Reserve not far from where our episode discussing Igor and Olga Moskalyova occurred. The geography of the peninsula is thick with alder and other scrub brush as well as groves of pine, fir and birch trees. Vitaly Nikolayenko was a 66 year old bear researcher. He was a self taught naturalist and wildlife photographer. This is his 33 year living with brown bears and documenting their mating rituals, social interactions and feeding habits. The bears tolerated him and his intrusion into their environment although he had to tumble down cliffs and climb trees to avoid charging bears at times. He was a senior ranger working on the reserve and would spend several months each year at remote locations performing his research. Vitaly was renowned among the bear research sphere of scientists filling hundreds of journals and thousands of pages with his observations, field notes and illustrations. He traveled an estimated one thousand kilometers per year through the wilderness of the reserve warding off poachers and illegal fishermen. Vitaly documented over 800 bear contacts per year and he knew many of the bears personally, if you will. His favorite was an older male he named “Dobrynya” whom he could curl up near, and sleep by, on occasion. The year 2003 was a peculiar year, in that the bears had not gone into hibernation by late December. It was most likely due to an environmental cause like a low salmon run or berry crop in the area. He was waiting for a helicopter out of the reserve for the season, from the warmth and safety of the park cabin he called home while on duty. While preparing some tea, Vitaly looked out the window and saw his old friend, Dobrynya walking right past the cabin on the bear trail. He grabbed his camera and his skis and followed the slow moving bruin toward the lake. He also brought his bear spray and his flare gun to scare the bear in case of a problem. Dobrynya slowly waddled his way up the snow covered trail a few hundred yards ahead of Vitaly. The man always enjoyed listening to his bear friend’s deep groans and rumbles as he was getting ready to rest, so Vitaly hurried to catch up. His cross country skis allowed him to stay on top of the snow and slide across the crust which helped him make up ground on the bear. It only took about a mile before Vitaly saw Dobrynya’s tracks entering into a thick grove of alders.