Bears kept stealing honey from beekeeper's farm, he used it to his advantage

Anyone familiar with "Winnie The Pooh" knows the beloved bear’s endless craving for honey. Real bears share this appetite, often raiding beehives to consume honey and even the bees. But in 2019, a Turkish beekeeper faced an unusual problem when a group of bears started regularly raiding his hives, leaving behind a mess. Instead of trying to stop them, he decided to use the honey-loving bears for a unique research project, according to Turkish outlet DHA.

When the story gained attention in 2019, Ibrahim Sedef—a council member, agricultural engineer, and beekeeper in Sürmene, Turkey—was battling a group of honey-hungry bears on his farm. He tried everything to protect his hives, from metal cages to food decoys like apples, bread, and fruit, but the bears kept coming back.

“I put outside several kinds of bread,” Sedef told Turkish paper Hürriyet. “For instance, there’s a kind of Trabzon-style bran bread prepared with whole wheat. It has always been their first choice among different breads. Their second choice is the sourdough bread, and their last choice is the bread bought from the market.” He also realized that these bears liked eating hazelnuts. But despite this buffet of snacks, the bears didn’t seem satisfied, for they always ended up invading the honeycombs.

Over three years, Sedef estimated that he had lost more than $10,000 worth of honey, per The Guardian. Fed up by these hoggish creatures, the beekeeper came up with an idea. He installed photo-trap cameras on the farm and decided to turn these honey-craving beasts into honey-tasting animals. So, he set up four bowls containing different types of honey in trays on a table. The bowls included flower honey, chestnut honey, Anzer honey, and cherry jam honey. After the equipment was set in place, he waited and watched to see which honey the bears preferred the most.

After examining a few snapshots from the camera, he noticed that the bears’ first choice was the world-famous Anzer honey, which is one of the most expensive honey in the world, according to The Guardian. It is produced from the nectar of 90 flowers that grow only in the mountains of the Anzer plateau. According to Bored Panda, 2 pounds of Anzer honey costs around $300. Clearly, the bears had an expensive taste. Added to it, the bears didn’t even touch the cherry jam honey, which was the least expensive. "Kocaoğlan really knows his taste. He starts with the Anzer honey every time, and does not even look at the jam," he told DHA.

Despite the harm they did to his hives and bee farm, Sedef felt compassionate towards his ravenous guests, he said, per The Guardian. “Despite all this, when I see the footage, I forget all the harm they have done to me, and love them.”

The footage of these mischievous bears can be seen throughout this video by DHA in snippets: