A bear researcher who spent decades living among the animals was found dead after a savage mauling - leaving a final journal entry for investigators to find. Vitaly Nikolayenko, one of Russia ’s most experienced bear experts, was fascinated by brown bears and lived in a one-room hut on the banks of the Tikhaya River where he could observe the enormous creatures. He was a senior ranger in the country’s Kronotsky Wildlife Reserve and spent months living out a solitary existence the wilderness,