More people are moving to the cities The countryside is populated with older people When they die, they often abandon their properties, as no one wants to live there The land returns to the forest Because this often has plum and apple trees and berry bushes, this becomes an excellent habitat for bears
“It is happening in a lot of places in Europe. This is creating new habitats for bears and not only for bears, because these abandoned parcels of land, you will have forest succession, so they will slowly and actively turn into a forest, and by this they are offering new habitats, new feeding opportunities and new hiding opportunities for large carnivores.”
Csaba Domokos, large carnivore project lead, Milvus Group, Romania
The EU is increasing its forestry estate. In 2021, the bloc hosted around 160 million hectares of forests, or 39 percent of EU land area. This is an increase of about eight million hectares or 5.3 percent since 2000.
A change in diet
In Romania, local and foreign tourists give sandwiches, corn cobs, crisps and bananas to bears, and then take pictures of the bears and post this on Tik-Tok
The problem with the bear is that its food overlap with humans is very high, so they like the same food as we like
Miha Krofel, large carnivore expert, professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bears are omnivores. They eat the same food as humans, but need a lot more to survive. If rubbish bins are not protected, bears will raid them. If they can enter an orchard, they will shake off the apples and plums. If pigs and sheep are not guarded securely, they will kidnap them. If hives are not protected by an electric fence, they will steal the honey. If a door to a kitchen is not locked, they will break in and eat everything they can lay their paws on. If people give them food, they will expect more.
Bears don’t come to villages because they are interested in people, they come here for food
Miha Krofel, large carnivore expert, professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
As human diets change to include more sugar and protein, so does the diet of bears. This is clear in eastern Europe.
In the communist era, the food that was brought by the tourists to the bears was bread, cake, very simple things, because no one could afford much. But after democracy brought a variety of food to Romania from western Europe, the market opened for different foods and the bears received food with more sugar, protein and certainly that changed their attitude and gradually generated an improvement in the fitness of bears living in urban areas
Istvan Imecs, biologist, Bear Smart City, Baile Tusnad, Romania
Bear diet
40%
Herbacious plants
16%
Cultivated fruits
14%
Maize, cereals, artificially cultivated food
9%
Forest fruit
5.3%
Diverse dry matter, like soil and bark
5%
Plastic
4.4%
Beech nut
3.8%
Arthropods, like ants
2.5%
Mammals
Sample of 500 pieces of excrement in and around Baile Tusnad, Romania/Laszlo Gal
As human diets change to include more sugar and protein, so does the diet of bears. This is clear in eastern Europe.
like managed forests
Managed commercial forests where active logging is going on are actually serving as a really good habitat for bears. In managed forests you have a lot of light penetrating to the soil, and you have a lot of herbaceous plants growing up, which are really a good food source for bears - and they harbour during the day a lot of large animals including bears
Csaba Domokos, Milvus Group
People are killing fewer
The old generation of woodcutters and mountain shepherds has disappeared. They obviously considered the bear not a predator like the wolf, but still a presence that was not always desirable, and when it bothered them, they eliminated it, as was the case until not so long ago. Now people are much more tolerant and do not indulge in poaching, except in rare cases, against bears. Bears therefore manage to develop this progressively confident behaviour
Luciano Sammarone, director, National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, Italy
Countries with large bear populations such as Romania and Slovakia have forbidden hunting since 2017. However hunting is still prevalent across many European countries, and poaching is still a problem in countries such as Albania.
