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A bear killed a man and seriously maimed a woman in their home in the outskirts of Mongolia’s capital, authorities said Thursday, warning that sightings of the animals have skyrocketed across the country this year.
The man in his 40s and the woman in her 50s were attacked on Wednesday night in the Bayanzurkh district on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, the city’s environment department chief Munkhbayar M told a news briefing.
The woman fled after sustaining injuries and sought help from neighbors, and she is being treated in a hospital, he said.
A team of 35 rangers is trying to locate and kill the bear.
Bear sightings have risen in Mongolia, with 24 confirmed sightings in Ulaanbaatar so far this year, compared with just two in 2018 and one in 2019, Munkhbayar said. Across Mongolia, 754 bear sightings have been reported in 11 provinces and the capital in 2026. Of those, 80% involved cubs or female bears accompanied by cubs.
Investigations are underway to determine what has caused the rise in sightings. Authorities have issued bear-hunting permits across eight provinces and are seeking to procure tranquilizer dart guns to support rangers in rural areas.
A bear that was hunted and examined in the eastern province of Khentii was found to have no food in its stomach, Baljinnyam N, an official at the Environment and Climate Change Ministry, told reporters.
As a result, authorities banned in September the harvesting of nuts and berries from mountainous areas for this year, he said.
Bear attacks increasing in parts of Asia
A spike in human-bear encounters has been reported in other parts of Asia recently.
In September, prosecutors said at least six people had been killed in bear attacks in Russia’s vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk over a one-month period, and an official in a neighboring region reported bears had put one town “under siege.”
Prosecutors said they opened a probe into criminal negligence, accusing local officials of failing to control bear numbers.
Russia’s brown bear population has more than doubled since 1990, from around 130,000 to almost 308,000 in 2026, according to Russia’s natural resources ministry.
Meanwhile, Japan has also recorded a sharp rise in bear sightings and attacks on humans in recent years, including in the outskirts of towns and cities. A record 13 people were killed by bears in Japan last year, and there has been a jump in encounters as the animals emerge hungry from hibernation.
The animals have been seen on airport runways, walking on golf courses, roaming near schools and causing panic in supermarkets and hot spring resorts almost on a daily basis.
The problem was so bad that last year, the U.S. State Department warned Americans in Japan to be alert for bears.
The causes are complex and include variations in food available — something potentially linked to climate change — as well as rural depopulation, experts say.
