A mother bear with four cubs had allegedly been spotted in the area some three weeks ago, but Martin Miller, environmental specialist for the Alutaguse municipal government, said it was unlikely that these were two separate families, the paper writes (link in Estonian).

"Unless a bear ends up in the middle of a village, it isn't even worth reporting a sighting anywhere," Miller said, noting that while in this case the bears had been spotted in a cemetery, the cemetery itself is located in the woods, and living in a wooded area, people need to bear in mind that wildlife sightings are inevitable.

"They are in the woods, their native habitat — and besides, they haven't caused any trouble there," said Ida-Viru Hunters' Society director Marko Vinni, commenting on the lack of need to drive the bears away from Vasknarva as was done a couple of weeks ago in the Tallinn district of Haabersti.

Nonetheless, Vinni warned that while bears generally aren't a danger to people, they should nonetheless avoid leaving food scraps outside that might attract bears, and definitely not intentionally feed them.

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