Large carnivore populations are expanding across south Europe. 
Numbers of bears are rising in Spain, Slovenia, Italy and Romania, and there’s evidence of higher numbers in Kosovo
Many countries are ill-equipped to manage this surge, and do not help the local population cope with bears.
Instead they pay off farmers who lose their livestock to hungry bears, and shoot dead the animals that cause problems.
But money and murder do not solve the problem.
Bears and humans will have to get used to each other. 
Bears Uncovered investigates why bear numbers are rising, why they come into conflict with humans, and the best solutions for co-existence between the two species.

population management

What are the reasons for bear expansion in Europe? Why does human-bear conflict happen? How can humans and bears co-exist? Is this possible without hunting? All these questions are answered by experts in large carnivores, and people living with bears, as our team visits bear territories across five countries, and searches for solutions to Europe's bear dilemma. The film can be watched here, and a summary of the findings is available on this site.

Europe's captive

Bears remain in captivity in Europe - in private zoos, monasteries, guest houses, and outside restaurants, which sell bear meat on the menu.

We have visited, filmed and documented bears in captivity in Italy, Slovenia, Albania and Romania, where the level of care for the bears varies.

Here are our results. But we also want to know if we have missed any. Please email us at bearsuncovered@gmail.com with any information.
We want to map all the bears in captivity in Europe, so we can understand the scale of this issue.
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The production of this investigation was supported by a grant from Investigative Journalism for Europe IJ4EU and Journalism Fund Europe.