Brown Bears in Europe: Where They Live and How Many Remain

Europe’s brown bear populations at a glance

Biologists divide Europe’s bears into about ten populations, separated by mountains, farmland, cities and highways. The numbers below are approximate. Countries count bears in different ways, from DNA in hair and droppings to sightings of mothers with cubs, so estimates are often disputed.

All of them belong to the same species as the North American grizzly, the brown bear (Ursus arctos). European bears are generally smaller than coastal Alaskan bears: adult males often weigh about 150–350 kg (330–770 lb) and females about 90–200 kg (200–440 lb), with big variation between regions and seasons.

The Carpathians: Europe’s bear stronghold

The great arc of the Carpathian Mountains holds the largest brown bear population in Europe outside Russia. Most of these bears live in Romania, where estimates range from about 8,000 to more than 10,000. The rest are spread through Slovakia’s Tatra and Low Tatra ranges, the Bieszczady Mountains of southeastern Poland and western Ukraine.

Romania’s bears owe part of their abundance to history. Large areas of forest survived, and for decades bears were protected as trophy animals for the country’s rulers, which kept numbers high. Today bears regularly come down from the forests into villages and the outskirts of towns such as Brașov, attracted by orchards, beehives and garbage. Conflicts, including injuries and some deaths, are more frequent here than in most of Europe, and how to manage the population is a heated national debate.

Scandinavia and Finland

Sweden’s bears are one of Europe’s great recovery stories. Around 1930 only about 130 bears were left in the country, after centuries of bounty hunting. Legal protection allowed numbers to climb into the thousands, and today Sweden has roughly 2,500–3,000 bears, mostly in the forested center and north. Norway has only around 150, almost all near its borders with Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Finland’s bears are part of the much larger population of northwestern Russia, and there are around 2,000 of them, concentrated in the east of the country. The brown bear is Finland’s national animal. Smaller numbers live in Estonia and Latvia. In this region bears den for up to six or seven months of the year, longer than anywhere else in Europe, as our article on whether bears hibernate explains.

The Dinaric Mountains and the Balkans

A belt of limestone mountains and beech-fir forests runs from southern Slovenia through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to Albania, North Macedonia and the Pindus Mountains of Greece. Together these bears form the Dinaric-Pindos population, estimated at about 3,000–4,000.

Slovenia and Croatia each have roughly 1,000 bears, and southern Slovenia has one of the highest bear densities in Europe. Because the population is healthy, Slovenia has supplied bears for reintroductions in the Pyrenees and the Alps. Further east, a separate group of about 500–800 bears lives in the Rila, Pirin, Rhodope and Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria and the neighboring parts of Greece and Serbia.

The Cantabrian Mountains of Spain

In northwestern Spain, brown bears survive in the Cantabrian Mountains across Asturias, León, Palencia, Cantabria and Galicia. Hunting, poisoning and habitat loss had reduced them to fewer than 100 animals by the 1990s, split into a western and an eastern group. Bear hunting was banned in Spain in 1973.

Protection, anti-poaching patrols and habitat work by regional governments and groups such as the Fundación Oso Pardo turned things around. A genetic estimate in 2020 put the population at about 370 bears, and the two groups have started to mix again. Bears have even wandered into northern Portugal, where the species had disappeared in the 19th century. The Cantabrian bears are well adapted to mild winters, and some stay active for part of the cold season.

The Pyrenees

The Pyrenees, on the border of France and Spain, once had a large bear population, but only about five native bears were left by the mid-1990s. To save the population, bears from Slovenia were released in the Pyrenees from 1996, with further releases in 2006, 2016 and 2018. The last native female, Cannelle, was shot in 2004.

The reintroduced bears have bred successfully. The latest counts by French wildlife authorities put the population at more than 100 bears, most of them in the central Pyrenees in the Ariège department and Catalonia, including the Val d’Aran. The project remains controversial with some sheep farmers, who lose animals to bears every year and are compensated by the state.

The Alps: Trentino’s bears

By the 1990s, only a handful of elderly native bears remained in the Adamello-Brenta area of Trentino in northern Italy. Between 1999 and 2002, the Life Ursus project released ten bears from Slovenia there. The population has grown to about 100 bears, the only established breeding population in the central Alps.

Young males often leave the area and travel hundreds of kilometers into Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In 2006 a bear known as Bruno became the first wild bear seen in Germany for 170 years. Living so close to people has brought problems: in 2023 a runner was killed by a bear in Trentino, the first such death in Italy in modern times, which led to fierce debate over how to manage the population.

The Marsican bears of Abruzzo

The most unusual European bears live in the Apennine Mountains of central Italy, mainly in Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park and its surroundings. These Marsican bears have been isolated from all other bears for centuries and were once described as a separate subspecies, Ursus arctos marsicanus. They differ slightly from other brown bears in appearance and behavior.

Only about 50–60 remain: a 2021 genetic survey identified at least 54 individuals. Because the population is so small and inbred, every death matters, and road accidents, poisoning and illegal killing are serious threats. The bears often feed near mountain villages, and in some places local people have learned to live alongside them.

Conservation and conflict

The brown bear is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, both worldwide and across Europe as a whole, but several European populations are tiny and isolated. The bear is strictly protected under the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention, although countries may remove individual bears that cause serious damage or threaten public safety.

The biggest challenges are roads and railways that split habitat, inbreeding in small populations, illegal killing, and conflicts over livestock, beehives, crops and garbage. Electric fences, livestock guarding dogs, bear-proof bins and compensation schemes help people and bears share the same landscapes. The return of bears alongside wolves, as described in our gray wolf profile, is part of a wider comeback of large carnivores in Europe.

How to behave in bear country

European brown bears are shy and usually avoid people long before they are seen. The risk to hikers is very low, but it is sensible to avoid surprising a bear:

• Make some noise when walking through dense forest or along noisy streams, and hike in a group where possible.
• Keep dogs on a leash, because a loose dog can provoke a bear and lead it back to you.
• Never approach, follow or feed a bear, and stay well away from cubs and from animal carcasses.
• Store food and garbage securely when camping, and use bear-proof bins where they are provided.
• If you see a bear, stay calm, do not run, and give it plenty of space. Back away slowly and let it leave.

If anyone is injured by a bear, call the European emergency number 112 immediately. For more on real risks, see our article asking are bears dangerous?

Where to see brown bears in Europe

The best chance of watching wild bears is from a hide with an experienced local guide, usually between May and September. Popular areas include eastern Finland near the Russian border, the forests of southern Slovenia and Croatia, and the Carpathian foothills of Romania. In Spain, bear watchers scan the hillsides of Somiedo Natural Park in Asturias with telescopes from viewpoints, especially in spring and early summer. Choose operators who follow local wildlife rules, keep their distance and do not disturb bears with cubs.