Polar bear walks miles away from home, gets lost in Russia

Residents of a village in Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula were stunned by the sight of a polar bear prowling for food hundreds of miles away from its usual habitat. Russian media reported Wednesday that the exhausted-looking animal somehow ended up in the village of Tilichiki, some 700 kilometers (434 miles) south of Kamchatka.

Environmentalists said the bear could have lost its sense of direction while drifting on an ice floe. "Due to climate change, the Arctic is getting warmer, hunting environment gets smaller and less convenient," said Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace.

"The ice is receding, and polar bears look for new ways to survive. And the easiest way is coming to people." Locals were making the bear feel welcome, giving it fish, media reported. Authorities in Kamchatka are preparing a rescue effort later this week. They plan to use a sedative to put the bear to sleep and then airlift it to Chukotka in a helicopter.

Polar bears' dependence on sea ice makes them highly vulnerable to global warming. Shrinking Arctic ice cover could increasingly deprive them of their usual prey, seals.

(With inputs from agencies.)