Incredible moment two giant Russian brown bears are airlifted to safety after being caught in rising flood waters.
Two stranded Russian brown bears were dramatically rescued from rising flood waters after emergency services scrambled helicopters to airlift them to safety.
The bears were stuck in cages and could not escape the floods, which are the worst the country's Far East has seen in 120 years.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry launched a pair of helicopters on Saturday to rescue the bears from the flooded region near Blagoveschensk.
The animals were found by rescue workers at a tourist camp base where they were being kept in cages.
They had been bought several years ago from a zoo in Ivanovo.
Helicopters winched the cages from the site and delivered them to higher ground.
Both the Amur river, the Zeya tributary have flooded in Siberia, forcing tens of thousands of residents in the Amur and Khabarovsk regions to evacuate.
Russian TV has shown footage of military vehicles carrying people away from flooded areas.
Although some 20,000 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas, Russian news reports indicate that many have chosen to remain and not leave their homes.
The floods hit three regions along the Chinese border in the Far East, 3,000 miles from Moscow, and some of those evacuated have moved into 166 emergency shelters.
The flooding, set off by torrential rains, has already affected 140 towns and villages across the broad area. The Amur region has been the worst affected, but the flooding there has passed its peak.
The Amur River, which has reached a record high, is still rising and could flood Komsomolsk-on Amur, a major city in the Khabarovsk region.
The floods have threatened mayoral elections in the Amur region due on September 8, when local elections will be held across Russia.
Source
Two stranded Russian brown bears were dramatically rescued from rising flood waters after emergency services scrambled helicopters to airlift them to safety.
The bears were stuck in cages and could not escape the floods, which are the worst the country's Far East has seen in 120 years.
Russia's Emergencies Ministry launched a pair of helicopters on Saturday to rescue the bears from the flooded region near Blagoveschensk.
The animals were found by rescue workers at a tourist camp base where they were being kept in cages.
They had been bought several years ago from a zoo in Ivanovo.
Helicopters winched the cages from the site and delivered them to higher ground.
Both the Amur river, the Zeya tributary have flooded in Siberia, forcing tens of thousands of residents in the Amur and Khabarovsk regions to evacuate.
Russian TV has shown footage of military vehicles carrying people away from flooded areas.
Although some 20,000 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas, Russian news reports indicate that many have chosen to remain and not leave their homes.
The floods hit three regions along the Chinese border in the Far East, 3,000 miles from Moscow, and some of those evacuated have moved into 166 emergency shelters.
The flooding, set off by torrential rains, has already affected 140 towns and villages across the broad area. The Amur region has been the worst affected, but the flooding there has passed its peak.
The Amur River, which has reached a record high, is still rising and could flood Komsomolsk-on Amur, a major city in the Khabarovsk region.
The floods have threatened mayoral elections in the Amur region due on September 8, when local elections will be held across Russia.
Source
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I'm glad that the bears were rescued. What a horrible death it would have been. I do hope they get to live in more than a tiny cage for the rest of their natural lives. The bears deserve better!
Laynie
I hope they won't end up as dancing puppets in a circus.
no edit function...
it was great that the bears were saved, but to what kind of life...?