The Scandinavian brown bear is a real success story in recent times. The European brown bear was almost driven to the edge of extinction but has now bounced back. However since a fatal bear attack in 2006 public support for bears in the forests of Norway and Sweden has dropped.
A 3 year study has tried to establish whether there is an increased risk of conflicts between humans and bears. The result has just been published on PLoS ONE and it looks like that the risk of an attack is low. When human hikers come into contact with bears it the bears that turn and move away.
Understanding how brown bears respond to hikers.
Understanding how bears respond to recreational users of forests such as hikers is important if conservation of the species is to continue. Current measures in Sweden and Norway has seen the brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) recover from a low of 130 individuals in 1930 to about 3,300 bears in Sweden and at least 166 bears in Norway.
With number of bears recovering to the 5000 individuals that were in the region during the mid 1800′s there is an obvious increased risk of conflict. This is especially so with bears now expanding their range with increasing numbers and human activities also now moving into traditional bear habitat.
80% of bears moved away from observers before they were seen.
The team that undertook the study used GPS to understand the movement of bears that they approached. Over the three-year period field researchers approached 30 collared bears. they used the GPS location of the bear to start the approach and moved across the path of the bear with the wind blowing their scent towards the bear.
In only 15% of the approaches did the researchers see the bear. In no case did the bear show any aggressive behaviour. In 80% of the cases the field researchers did not see the bear as it moved away as the approach began. Older bears were more likely to delay their movement away then younger bears. The researchers reported that bears are more likely to stay longer during the berry season and move away from the observers earlier during the pre-berry picking season.
Scandinavian brown bears are pretty timid.
The researchers, Gro Kvelprud Moen, Ole-Gunnar Støen1, Veronica Sahlén, and Jon E. Swenson, hope that the new study will help to allay fears that bears are dangerous. The new study confirms that Scandinavian brown bears are much less aggressive than their north American or Russian counter-parts. The bears simply prefer to avoid aggression and move away from human walkers.
Scandinavian bears are known to make their preferred range away from forest roads and cuttings. They also prefer to stay away from recreational and tourist locations and lodges. Bears even move away from locations that forestry is taking place. The brown bear in Europe is generally timid and will only become aggressive if wounded or with their cubs and feel threatened.
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