A SHORTAGE OF TRADITIONAL FOOD SOURCES for bears living near the Arctic Circle has driven the animals to dig up corpses buried in graveyards.

Russian officials say the bears have begun eating corpses at municipal cemeteries, the Guardian reports.

On Saturday, two women in Vezhnya Tchova cried out when they saw a bear chewing a corpse in a local cemetery, causing the animal to abandon the body and run back into the woods.

World Wildlife Fund Russia said they received similar reports two years ago from Karelia in the north of Russia. Masha Vorontsova from WWF Russia told the Guardian: “You have to remember that bears are natural scavengers”.

Vorontsova said that in Karelia, one bear had learned how to open coffins and then taught other bears how to do it. She added: ”The story is horrible. Nobody wants to think about having a much loved member of their family eaten by a bear”.

Locals say that more traditional sources of food for bears such as mushrooms, berries and frogs are in short supply. Vorontsova said that while fish supplies were at normal levels, graveyards offered an easy supply of food for the bears.