Poop Analysis Shows Endangered Bears Are Surviving Exclusively on Garbage

A critically endangered brown bear species found exclusively in the Himalayas is now surviving on garbage such as plastic and a South Asian rice dish unfit for their digestion, a new study has found.

The Himalayan brown bear is listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. 

This first-of-its-kind diet analysis of Himalayan brown bears conducted by Indian NGO Wildlife SOS and the Wildlife Protection Department of India-administered Jammu and Kashmir state, found plastic bags, chocolate wrappers, shards of glass and improperly disposed high-calorie Indian biryani in their poop.

“Since [the garbage, including biryani] are not a part of the natural diet of these bears who usually feed on grass, plants and small mammals, these items can be harmful to the gastric intestinal structure of the [Himalayan] brown bear,” Swaminathan S, senior biologist at Wildlife SOS who led the project, told VICE World News. 

“It can cause severe ailments and even shorten their lifespan.” 

One key site of garbage was a holy camp called Amarnath, where people were disposing up to 550 kilograms of filth, including rancid biryani.  

The survey was done between July and October, 2021, and covered over 400 Himalayan brown bears, which are usually extremely reclusive. The team installed over 20,000 trap cameras, commonly used to survey wildlife in India, across the Jammu and Kashmir region, especially at garbage dumps. 

“Due to the remote terrains they occupied, the Himalayan brown bears were a rare sight for the last 2 decades,” Aaliya Mir, project manager at Wildlife SOS, said in a statement. “Recently, however, brown bears have increasingly come into the purview of humans as they venture into lower altitudes in search of food.”

Photos and video shared with VICE World News shows footage of the bears munching on filth at night. Himalayan brown bears are omnivores and usually eat fresh plants, insects and small mammals. 

The Himalayan brown bears belong to one of the most ancient bear lineages. One survey estimates there are up to 700 of these bears in the subcontinent, but there’s very little data about their distribution and lifestyle. India is seeing increasing rates of man-wild conflict, with the Kashmir region seeing at least 67 deaths and 940 injuries of humans in animal attacks. In 2019, a Himalayan brown bear went on a rampage at a school and houses in a Kashmiri village. 

Recent news reports show the brown bears are increasingly entering human habitats. Conservationists have previously noted the role of armed conflict in the region since the 1990s in destroying habitats of brown bears. 

In some places, the wildlife officials found that the bears were so used to eating garbage that they’ve forgotten their original feeding habits. Swaminathan said that their camera traps captured the bears at garbage sites with their cubs, showing a very real possibility that the new diet will now be passed on to the next generation of these endangered bears.

“At such a young age, these bear cubs will pick up such foraging behaviour as ‘natural’,” said Swaminathan. “Moreover, through interviews with locals, we found that brown bears have been visiting these sites for almost 8-10 years thus it is very likely that the behaviour has already been passed from mother to cub.”

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