We all know that bears love honey, and it is no surprise that they will go to great lengths to get it. They love it so much that they cannot resist raiding beehives, often causing a real headache for many beekeepers. The adorable alpha predators are common guests at bee farms, but they’re very unwelcome since the damages they cause are often costly. Many beekeepers try their best to keep them away from beehives.
Ibrahim Sedef lives in Trabzon, Turkey. He’s an agricultural engineer that works in beekeeping. He’s been struggling for some time to prevent eager bears from trashing the hives in an attempt to get the precious honey.
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To protect the hives, Sedef tried to secure them by putting metal cages around them. He also tried leaving food such as fruit, bread, and honey in an effort to prevent bears from treating themselves to snacks directly from the hives. Unfortunately, that did not work well and some hives still got damaged.
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So, the beekeeper decided to learn more about the bears’ movement and behavior. He did this by installing photo trap cameras to track the bears roaming his bee farm.
While trying to figure out a way to outsmart the curious animals, Sedef came up with a genius idea: he decided to turn the bears into honey tasters. After all, they do love a good honey. He set up a table with four kinds of honey to tempt the bears. He was not disappointed with the result. It turns out, the bears have quite an expensive taste.
Sedef said the bears were drawn by the smell of Anzer honey, and they always tasted it first. Smart bears – two pounds of the famous Turkish honey can sell for more than $300.
