The case in summary: • Jarfjord in Finnmark has experienced an increased number of bear sightings this summer, which is causing concern among the local population and researchers.• Researcher Paul Eric Aspholm believes that the bear tribe in Finnmark is moving north and approaching many different areas at the same time, but the reason is unknown. • Bears with cubs have been observed in Jarfjord, and there are fears of confrontations between mother bears and humans.• Aspholm is calling for quick measures from the authorities to gain knowledge about the situation in Finnmark.• SNO director Veronica Sahlén believes that if the bear population in Finnmark have started to move into new areas, then it is a pattern that is known from other places.• The population is encouraged to report observations of bears to contribute to the monitoring of brown bears in Norway. – There are bear tracks everywhere. People see bears, they walk between the houses, and our animals react to the fact that there are bears in the area, says Arnfinn Vonka, a dairy farmer in Jarfjord. This summer, bears have been observed several times in the village in Sør-Varanger, right by the Norwegian-Russian border. So close have the bears been that they have appeared in people’s gardens. iFinnmark mentioned this case first. Mina Grav had the experience of a small bear cub entering the garden. Just half an hour before, she had been in the garden with her roommate. Together with Hedemark, Finnmark is the county in the country where the most bears have been registered. Vonka says there have always been bears in the area, but the population has never experienced bears as close as they have now. According to him, the cows on the farm and the neighbour’s horses get restless and scared when there are bears nearby. – It is a traumatic experience for the animals when day after day they are afraid to go out of the barn. Instead of standing still or walking around and eating, they spend their time running away because a bear is coming, says Vonka. Arnfinn Vonka will one day take over the family’s dairy farm at Kulpmo in Jarfjord. He worries about the increased bear population. Photo: private Fear that something is seriously wrong in nature The situation in Jarfjord also worries researcher Paul Eric Aspholm. He has worked with bear research at Nibio Svanhovd in Pasvik for a number of years. Now he and his colleagues are following the situation closely. – We see that the bear is approaching many different areas at the same time, and that the entire bear tribe in Finnmark is moving north. But we don’t understand why this happens. The researcher says he is afraid that something is seriously wrong in nature, which is causing the bear to move. – There have been more bears in Jarfjord, Austertana and Lakselv. At the same time, there are fewer bears in the traditional bear areas, such as in the inner parts of Anarjohka and Pasvik. Paul Eric Aspholm is a researcher at Nibio Svanhovd in Finnmark. He is worried that more bears are coming down to people. Photo: NIBIO, Svanhovd It’s not good that bears gravitate towards people In Jarfjord, the population has encountered bears with cubs in the village. Aspholm believes that the smell and sound of people enable the bears to hide from male bears. – What we see signs of now is that bins with cubs and young bears that are out on their own are searching for people. And then apparently some male bears follow these. According to Aspholm, the male bears are looking for a female to mate with. But bears that gravitate towards people are not good, he says. Especially not when there are bins with children. A confrontation between a mother bear and humans is what Aspholm fears most. The worst scenario he can imagine is that a child walking a dog gets between a bear cub and her cubs. – If you come between the cub and the binna, you will get a beating – a bear beating. The mother wants to defend her cub. And it can be uncomfortable, to say the least. Calls for rapid action The Norwegian Nature Inspectorate (SNO), which works in the field for environmental management, is in the area and records what is happening. Aspholm calls for more measures. At the same time, Nibio Svanhovd does not have the money to carry out research on this now. He believes the authorities must therefore take quick action to gain knowledge about what is happening in Finnmark. – Right now we have many bears here, but we don’t know how many, or why they have gathered here. We can have problems if a bear stays close to people for a long time. Then it changes its behavior. It is not unique that the bear moves to new areas, SNO director Veronica Sahlén is not as worried about the development. If the bear population in Finnmark has started to move into new areas, then it is a pattern that is known from other places, according to her. This has happened in several places in Sweden, where the population of bears is much larger than in Norway. Veronica Sahlén, director of SNO, says it is not unique for the bear to move to new areas. Photo: SNO The SNO director says she understands that several encounters with bears can be perceived as unpleasant for the population. – What we can say is that it is not unique. There is nothing to suggest that there are deviations from the pattern we know from other places. But you must of course have respect for large wild animals. Sahlén says you can initiate scare measures to make the bears move away. So far, however, that has not been the case. The female bear, which was shot in Jarfjord in May 2024, did not allow itself to be chased away from newborn reindeer calves. Photo: Statens naturoppsyn / Environment Directorate In Sweden, they leave the bear alone Researcher Ole-Gunnar Støen is part of a Scandinavian bear project that studies the ecology and management of brown bears in Scandinavia. Støen says he does not know the situation in Finnmark well enough to comment. In Sweden, where he has a good overview, bins with cubs and younger male bears are often observed near people. Senior researcher Ole Gunnar Støen leads bear projects in Sweden. Photo: NINA He says the practice in Sweden is that people leave the bear alone – Bears prefer not to be close to people. Bears with cubs and young bears use the area because there are fewer large males there. But if you leave them alone, they will usually withdraw. That is what the research from Sweden concludes. Fewer have sent in bear poo. Rovdata is responsible for monitoring brown bears in Norway, and has an overview of how many individuals there are in the country. In this monitoring, the researchers depend on the population reporting findings of faeces, traces and observations of bears. Veronica Sahlén says there are significantly fewer reported observations and reported samples this year than in previous years from Finnmark. – We will encourage the population to report bear sightings, so we can document and submit for DNA analysis. It will help to gain a knowledge base about the number of bears and where they come from. Published 04.08.2024, at 10.51
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Worried about approaching bears in Finnmark and fear something is wrong in nature – news Troms and Finnmark
