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Bears thrive in Arctic on new Iron Curtain route

The brown bears are apparently benefiting from the end of the Cold War when they were used as targets by bored or jittery Soviet guards on the desolate icy frontier between NATO member Norway and the Soviet Union. "The bear population seems to be increasing," said Martin Smith, an American bear researcher who works at the Svanhovd Environmental Center in the remote pine and birch forests of the Pasvik Valley which divides Norway and Russia.