A single bear population once spanned the whole of Europe. Widespread hunting, human expansion and environmental destruction fragmented this habitat. Culturally, Europe has always been close to bears. The capital cities Berlin and Bern may have been named after bears, and both contain the animal on their flags. But hunters forced these mammals close to extinction by the end of the 19th century. Now there are no wild bears in Germany or Switzerland.
Source: Bears Uncovered research (2022/23) Russia (2018), Greece (2017), Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia (2021)
numbers now and historically
In Europe, around 100,000 bears are living in 25 countries, with almost two thirds of this number estimated to be in European Russia Numbers are rising in France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Albania, Kosovo, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Poland Elsewhere their numbers are mostly stable. Statistics on bear numbers are not always accurate or consistent between countries.
