Are There Bears in Europe? Where Brown Bears Live Today

Which bears live in Europe?

Europe’s only widespread bear is the brown bear, the same species as the North American grizzly. European bears belong to the form usually called the Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos). They are generally smaller and shyer than coastal Alaskan bears; adult males often weigh about 150–350 kg (330–770 lb) and females about 90–200 kg (200–440 lb).

The only other bear in Europe is the polar bear, which lives far to the north on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and on Russia’s Arctic islands. It is not found on the European mainland.

Where brown bears live in Europe today

Scientists recognize about ten separate brown bear populations in Europe. The approximate numbers below come from national surveys and the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe, and counting methods differ from country to country, so treat them as rough estimates.

Romania alone holds the largest number of bears in the European Union, most of them in the forests of the Carpathian arc. Finland’s bears are linked to the much larger population across the border in Russia, and the brown bear is Finland’s national animal. In most of these regions bears live in large, quiet forests and mountains, and many people who live nearby never see one.

How European bears came back

By the early 20th century, centuries of persecution had wiped out bears in most of Western and Central Europe. Bounties encouraged killing, forests were cleared for farming, and bears survived mainly in remote mountains and the far north and east.

Legal protection, larger forests and a decline in rural populations have allowed several populations to grow since the mid-20th century. Bears in Sweden recovered from roughly 130 animals around 1930 to several thousand today. In northern Spain, the Cantabrian population grew from a few dozen bears in the 1990s to several hundred. In other places, numbers were rebuilt by releases: ten bears from Slovenia were moved to the Adamello-Brenta area of Trentino, Italy, between 1999 and 2002, and Slovenian bears have been released in the French Pyrenees since 1996, after the last native Pyrenean female was shot in 2004.

Today the brown bear is strictly protected under the EU Habitats Directive, although some countries are allowed to remove bears that cause damage or threaten safety.

Countries where bears have disappeared

Bears vanished from Britain long ago. The exact date is unknown, but it was at least a thousand years ago and possibly much earlier. Bears also disappeared from Denmark thousands of years ago and from the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in the Middle Ages or earlier. The last native bears in Germany were killed in 1835 and in Switzerland in 1904, and bears died out in Portugal in the 19th century.

Young male bears sometimes wander far from their birthplace. Bears from Trentino have crossed into Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and a bear from Spain was recorded in Portugal in 2019, but these are lone travelers rather than returning populations.

Can you see bears in Europe?

Yes. Bear watching from hides is popular in eastern Finland near the Russian border, in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania, and in the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, usually between late spring and early autumn. Guided trips with experienced local operators give the best chance of seeing bears without disturbing them. For a fuller regional guide, see brown bears in Europe.

Are European bears dangerous?

European brown bears are generally shy and avoid people, and serious attacks are rare. Scandinavia recorded only a few fatal attacks in the entire 20th century. Most incidents happen when a bear is surprised at close range, especially a mother with cubs or a bear with a carcass, or when bears have learned to find food near houses. Conflicts have increased in some areas where bear numbers are high, such as parts of Romania, and in 2023 a jogger was killed by a bear in Trentino, Italy. Read more in are bears dangerous?

The bigger daily conflicts involve bears damaging beehives, orchards and crops, or killing sheep. Electric fences, livestock guarding dogs, bear-proof garbage bins and compensation schemes help people and bears share the landscape.