Bear attacks international expedition and drags terrified MA student out of tent

The early morning attack was at the camp site of an international scientific expedition by Lake Kisi in Magadan region. 

A brown bear tore one of the tents around 4 am and pulled out 22 year old Nikolay Maksimov, MA student of Russia’s North-Eastern Federal university in Yakutsk. 

As the bear bit through Maksimov’s clothes and dragged him away by his shoulder, a second student who shared the tent screamed for help and held onto Nikolay’s leg. 

‘I was asleep in the tent when the bear attacked. It was pulling me into the taiga as other expedition members woke up’, he told a Yakutian hunting Instagram account. 

The attack was on 1 July, when the group which studied tundra lake was out of phone coverage in remote area some 120km away from Magadan. 

It was not immediately reported. 

The attack was on 1 July, when the group which studied tundra lake was out of phone coverage in remote area some 120km away from Magadan

‘It was strange that the bear ignored the tent with all expedition forage and went straight for the people,’ said Vasily Kolodeznikov, director of the Institute of Natural Sciences, part of the North-Eastern Federal University. 

‘Expedition members who slept in other tents heard the screams and rushed out to help. 

‘They shot twice in the air, the bear got scared and let go of Nikolay. 

‘Then the bear was shot dead’, he explained. 

Nikolay was treated at the site for his shoulder wound and scratches. 

Ten hours after the attack a disaster medicine helicopter arrived, delayed by bad weather. 

Nikolay Maksimov was taken to a hospital in Magadan where he spent three days before moving to Yakutsk. 

He is now back to studies as the academic year resumed. 

The international scientific expedition to study tundra lakes takes part every year, with participants from several countries travelling around Yakutia, Taymyr Peninsula, Chukotka and Magadan region. 

The brown bear that attacked Nikolay was shot. Picture of Lake Kisi is by Oleg Rydchenko