At the solid waste disposal facility in Bingöl’s Kiğı district, 3 brown bears that had come looking for food were found shot with a firearm. Footage recorded by Cüneyt Cici, the president of the Kiğı Online Bilim Kültür Sanat ve Dayanışma Derneği, and local residents showed that the bears had been shot in the head and back. It was reported that the brown bears had been coming to the site for a long time, particularly in the evenings, and that some residents had watched them from a distance. After the incident became known, the Governor’s Office launched an investigation; security units are examining the evidence and footage. Local residents, association representatives and animal rights advocates called for the incident to be investigated, and for camera-trap and security-camera recordings to be examined, citing the fact that access to and exit from the area are possible via a single route and that gunshots could have been heard. The Governor’s Office announced that efforts were under way to determine the firearm used and the evidence, and to apprehend those responsible and hand them over to the judicial authorities.
Why it matters
The fact that the waste disposal area in Kiğı has long been used by brown bears to search for food shows that wildlife and human activity intersect at the same point in the region. For this reason, the scope of the investigation should not be limited to identifying the firearm and those responsible, but should also reveal how access to and exit from the site are organized and how security measures operate. The use of a single route, information that gunshots could have been heard in the surrounding area, and the existing footage are important in determining the timing of the incident and the perpetrator or perpetrators. Examining camera-trap and security-camera recordings could make it possible to compare local residents’ observations with official evidence. This could clarify both the judicial dimension of the investigation and which conditions need to be changed to prevent similar incidents.