MOSCOW, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of polar bears who had been besieging Russian Arctic settlements for over a week, left the area, local news reported Monday.
"No bears have been spotted in the settlement of Belushya Guba or around it for the past 24 hours," a source from the Arkhangelsk regional department of the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.
On Feb. 9, the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, located in the Arctic Ocean in the Arkhangelsk Region in Russia's North, declared a state of emergency after dozens of polar bears had invaded local settlements.
At least 52 polar bears were spotted near the settlement of Belushya Guba, some of them acting aggressively or breaking into homes and offices.
Their numbers have thinned out near the other settlements compared to the previous week. Specialists and local authorities, military and law enforcement officers continue patrolling the area and monitoring the situation, added the source.
The invasion of polar bears has been caused by the seasonal migration of animals and available edible waste in the settlements, according to Ilya Mordvintsev, a lead researcher at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution.
