Crazy warm Russian winter blamed for waking bears out of hibernation

If you had any doubts about global warming, go ask a Siberian bear. In the Russian Arctic, it's so warm this winter that it's rousing bears from hibernation.

We now have insomniac bears in the Arctic, so watch out.

Rescue workers released a polar bear somewhere in Chukotka, Russian Far East. A polar bear which was found roaming around a village in eastern Russia, hundreds of miles away from its usual habitat, has been airlifted back home.

In the Northern Hemisphere, winter has just started, but the bears can tell something up. Throughout many parts of Russia, the unusually warm weather has been signaling it’s springtime to plants - which have been blooming - and to bears.

The spokesperson at the Bolsherechensky Zoo noticed the zoo's bears fell back asleep quickly, except for one - Dasha, a Himalayan bear. Dasha needed temperatures to drop before she would hibernate again.

According to Russian meteorologists, this is the warmest December in 133 years. The warm weather’s been blamed for snowmelt, thawing Siberian permafrost and an "unprecedented" number of Arctic Circle wildfires.

Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the global average, according to Russia's environment ministry.