A beekeeper in Turkey who was harassed by a particularly persistent group of bears has discovered a profound truth: the animals have very expensive tastes when it comes to honey.
Ibrahim Sedef, an engineer from Trabzon, north-east of Ankara on the Turkey’s Black Sea coast, struggled to keep his bee hives out of the hands of local bears, despite building storage houses and metal cages.
Over three years he estimates he may have lost more than $10,000 worth of honey.
Food decoys, including apples, failed to divert the intruders.
So he decided to set up recording equipment to track the bears and inadvertently embarked on animal testing of a different kind.
Sedef set up four bowls; three contained different types of honey – flower, chestnut and Anzer – and one had cherry jam. He wanted to see which one the bears preferred.
Anzer honey is the best, gourmets show... Highly recommended😀 https://t.co/WkDDy5GbDY
— Turkish Consulate LA (@TRConsuLA) August 21, 2019
The footage revealed they had very expensive taste. Their favourite, Anzer honey, is believed to be the most expensive honey in the world. It is produced from the nectar of 90 flowers that grow only in the mountains of the Anzer plateau.
OK, a bee farmer was tired of bears stealing his honey, so he turned them into taste testers. This is a #picturebook! pic.twitter.com/xGcOzFLYev
— Tara Lazar (@taralazar) August 28, 2019
In addition to being delicious to bears, some believe Anzer honey has healing qualities for a long list of ailments, including stomach pains, hair loss and wound treatment. It can sell for as much as $300 (£250) a kilogram.
Despite his losses, Ibrahim Sedef is philosophical about his hungry visitors. “Despite all this, when I see the footage, I forget all the harm they have done to me, and love them,” he said.
Brown bears are the largest carnivores in Turkey and mainly live near the Black Sea and Eastern Anatolian regions.