This week, two bears have been killed in Norway – one in Buskerud and one in Trøndelag. Both bears were young male bears on migration. It is precisely something they do when they separate from their mother. Although humans and bears rarely meet, the possibility is always present when you walk in the forest. Here is some good advice and some information, so that you are better prepared for a meeting with Daddy Teddy. How common is it to meet bears? Encountering a bear in Norway is quite rare, according to professor and veterinarian at the Norwegian University of the Interior, Jon Martin Arnemo. According to Rovdata, 175 brown bears were detected in Norway in 2022. Most of them are mostly around the border with Sweden. If you want to meet bears, you should go to Sweden – they have ten times more bears than us. Jon Martin Arnemo says you have to be lucky to meet a bear in Norway. Photo: The Scandinavian Bear Project What should you actually do if you meet a bear? Climb a tree? Play dead? Error. If you feel threatened by a bear or he starts walking towards you, stand still and raise your hands. If you have a jacket or a rucksack, you can put it in front of you. You must then calmly back away while making eye contact with the bear. You should never try to run from a bear, says Arnemo. – He runs the 100 meters in 8 seconds flat, so not even Usain Bolt can run from a bear, he says. Reindeer herder Per Anders Bongo caught the bears on camera when he was guessing the herd. Brunbjørn has a top speed of 50–60 km/h. Is the bear dangerous? Yes, a full-grown bear is clearly capable of harming a human. In the last 40 years, it has happened around 30 times that a bear has attacked people. Two of these attacks were fatal – both in Sweden. – In the vast majority of cases, it is a hunting situation, loose dogs are involved and the bear is the front-runner, says Arnemo. Kurt Are Boine Nikkinen from Karasjok was calm when he met five bears, and used sound to scare them away. How do you tell how old the bear is? The easiest way is to compare the ear with the bear’s head. If the bear has small ears, it is a big bear. If the bear has big ears, it is a small bear. That’s because the bear’s ears don’t grow even though the head does. – The bigger the bear, the smaller the eye looks. The largest male bears, which can weigh 250-300 kilos, you can hardly see the ear above the top of the head, says Arnemo. The easiest way to estimate how big a bear is is to look at the eye. Photo: Jon Martin Arnemo Why do young bears migrate? The reason why the Swedish bears come here from Sweden is pure biology. When young bears are 1–2 years old, they separate from their mothers. The boys are not allowed to live at home when they grow up, so they emigrate – unlike their sisters, who live in the vicinity of their mother. – I myself have been and anesthetized a bear in Arendal, so they can go all the way there. They walk around 50 miles as the crow flies in their migrations, says Arnemo. If they go east in Sweden, they will end up in the sea. That is why they go west towards Norway. Female bears usually have between 100 and 150 square kilometers of living space, while male bears have between 800 and 1000. Photo: Ilpo Kojola How often do we shoot bears? Every year, several licenses are issued to shoot bears in Norway in order to regulate the population. In Sweden, bears are hunted much more, according to Arnemo. – Due to an ever-increasing tribe in Sweden, the quotas there have increased. This year, the number of licenses in Sweden is expected to exceed 700, he says. In addition to this, culling, i.e. killing an animal that causes damage, can be used to avoid damage to sheep and domestic reindeer. If the bear shows behavior that could pose a risk to humans, the Norwegian Environment Agency can also implement extraordinary measures. In the middle of the 19th century, there were between 4,700 and 4,800 brown bears in Scandinavia. 3100 of these lived in Norway, while 1650 were in Sweden. Political goals that the bear should be eradicated led to a rapid decline in the population in both countries, according to Rovdata.
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What do you do if you meet a bear? Here is some good advice – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
