Tag: Bear

Posted on

Sweden decides to kill 20% of its bears in its annual hunt

Wild bears in Sweden

Just under 500 permits have been granted for bear hunting, which would drop the countries population under 2000 across the whole country. This is 40% under the population that existed in 2008. This number of licenses gives the game away, it is a give away to the trophy hunting industry, and is not about controlling the population.

While many bear hunters are pleased, there are a significant number who are concerned. Anders Nilsson a hunter in north Sweden said “There are those within the hunting community that are concerned about too many bears being killed off”. This is well above the annual replacement rate, and it is predicted that if this level was sustained into next year, the number of bears would fall below the minimum level of 1400, that is thought that is needed to retain a healthy population within the country.

Bears are a protected species in Europe, and as such “deliberate hunting or killing of strictly protect species is prohibited” with this only being lifted as a “last resort” to protect public safety, crops or natural flora and fauna.

It is feared that the bear is heading in the same direction as the moose, with a population having fallen 60% in the 21st century – having killed too many moose, the hunters are now blaming the bears for killing too many of what is left, and leaving too small a share for trophy hunters in the country. Culls of both wolves (there are currently roughly 450 wolves in the country, considered above carrying capacity, but only because they compete with humans, there is little supported science in working out carrying capacity at this level) and lynx have been increasing (lynx have a population of around 1450, though this is also heavily depressed on what would occur naturally – lynx also rarely target domestic livestock, though in Sweden this is more complex, as reindeer in northern Sweden are semi domestic, being allowed to roam free but owned).

This cull is well above what should be allowed, and is clearly not in line with European rules. It is also highly dangerous, as it risks Sweden’s bear watching industry. 9.2% of the economy comes from tourism, and many of these will spend time in rural areas, trying to see the bears. While it is hard to find numbers for how much money the bear culling brings in, it is certainly lower than the ecotourism potential of each living bear.

I have been lucky enough to see both bear and wolf in Sweden, from a bear hide. Well worth a visit, though, you may feel it worth waiting till the country starts culling fewer. Having said this, visiting to see the bears may instead show the government the value of leaving more bears alive. We have a bear hide on our books in the country click here to see more, or to book your visit, which is likely to be a memory that stays with you for a long time.

Posted on

Boki the bear, from wildwood enjoys calpol to help with pain after surgery

Boki the bear (2 years old) was found to have a condition that I also have. It is known as hydrocephalus, and is caused when the liquid that is found around the brain does not drain away properly. This is often found in infants, but can also occur after a head injury.

When this liquid does not drain, rather than protecting the brain, this liquid squeezes the brain, which apart from being very painful (it usually causes insanity before death, if left untreated in babies) but can take decades to kill naturally.

It seems quite likely, that this bear would have died relatively quickly in the wild, as even if the illness did not kill, it would likely cause different behaviour which would likely have caused more problems.

While it is true that bears have a sweet tooth, which may have contributed to this bears like for it, they are also very intelligent, and may well have been able to connect the idea of feeling better with the medicine that he was taking.

Posted on

Albino panda spotted in the wild

Rare albino panda seen again

If anyone has been reading this blog for some time, you may remember me writing about an albino panda that was photographed in wulong nature reserve in China (click here to read it)

This bear has been caught on camera (see above) and appears to be doing well. It has started to display mating behaviour and appears to be extremely healthy. It has all the features generally associated with albinism, with white fur and red eyes.. It is now around 5-6 years old, and has been seen playing with other pandas, suggesting that its unusual colouring is not leading to it being shunned from other pandas.

It was filmed approaching a mother with a 2 year-old cub. As the mother was ready to mate again, and yet did not show aggression to this male bear getting close, it is likely that this female is the mother of the white cub.

Currently thought to be numbered 1800 in the wild, the panda is currently listed as threatened – having been delisted from being endangered in 2016. It is also an integral part of the Giant panda national park which is being created, and links 67 panda reserves, allowing the bears to travel between the former islands of habitat, giving them the ability to breed in a more natural way. This is important, as inbreeding would make panda conservation even harder.

Posted on

Panda bear behaving like a meat eater/scavenger?

This bear was filmed, gnawing on a bone from a takin, a species of wild cattle.

For a species which is thought to survive exclusively on bamboo, this would be strange behaviour.

However, pandas do not survive exclusively on bamboo as roughly 1% of their diet comes from other foods. In fact, their digestive system is typical of a carnivore, so the remaining 1% of their diet can include eggs, small animals and carrion – like this bone. Pandas are also known to forage in farmland for pumpkin, kidney beans, wheat and domestic pig food.

The thing is, pandas eat up to 38kg a day, which means that during the week, they eat around 3kg of food that is not bamboo. This is significant, and while much of this may well be other vegetation, if the time spent on other food sources was around 1% of the time, it would suggest at least 1 hour a week spent eating other things.

One must remember that their intelligence is on a par with Chimpanzee and gorilla -like other bears, so they are capable of working things out.

Red panda

Red Panda

Recent genetic analysis has shown that the red panda is not in fact a small bear, but instead has a closer relationship to raccoons, mustelids (badgers otters and the like) and skunks. However, what is even more fascinating, is that the next closest related family is in fact the pinipeds (seals sealions and similar) and only after this, do we find the giant panda amongst the other bears.

What is fascinating, though, is that this is the original panda. The red panda was discovered and named in 1825, while the giant panda was only discovered in 1869. I cannot find any articles on it, but I suspect that the red panda was also long-known about in China before its discovery as well.

It is not closely related to the giant panda, which is a bear, though they do share a number of features such as elongated wrist bones or “false thumbs” used for grasping bamboo (so-called convergent evolution; where distantly related species evolve the same features, because it allows each to survive well in the wild – eating what they eat (or similar). The evolutionary lineage of the red panda (Ailuridae) goes back as far as 18-25 million years ago, and there are a variety of fossils in this lineage, found in Europe and North America.

So what has happened in recent times? They were known to be found in  two different places, one of them lives in the Himalayas and the other in China. What has been discovered in recent times, is that these are not only subspecies, but separate species – and are thought to have split 250,000 years ago. However, while this is clearly true, it may well need to be forgotten – there are only 10,000 red pandas left in the wild as the top possible estimate, some suggest that there are actually only 2500 – we may have no choice in conserving both species, but have to interbreed them to help just one mixed group of red pandas, rather than loosing all red pandas from the wild. They live in coniferous forests as well as temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to water sources. Most of its nutrients come from bamboo stems and leaves,

Support for these wild populations is essential. The best way to help justify their long term survival, is for local people to see them as a financial gift. This can happen quickly, with not that many people going there.

Below is a video for each, below that is a list of any articles which mention this fascinating creature, and below that, we will add any links that  will help you see these animals in the wild.

[TS_Video_Gallery id="4"]

Beluga Whale

Beluga Whale

Beluga whales are only found in the arctic and sub-arctic oceans. They are one of just 2 species in their family Monodontidae, and are unique in their genus of Delphinapterus. It is also known as the white whale, the sea canary and the Melon-head (though the melon-headed dolphin is a species of its own, so this name may cause some confusion.

Adaptions it has for the Arctic, include the fact that it is white in colour, allowing it to blend into the white world more effectively, and the fact it has no dorsal fin, which allows it to swim very close to the ice sheet above.

Growing up to 5.5m in length and up to 1600kg they are a pretty large dolphin. Generally, living in groups of around 10, in the summer, they group together in their hundreds or thousands.

The worlds population is thought to be around 200,000, Some populations move from the edge of the ice cap, into rivers in warmer areas, while others stay around the ice caps year round. Groups of people in both USA and Russia have hunted them for many centuries.

Hunting is not controlled, and as such the drop in population could happen quite fast. Russia and Greenland have killed enough to drop their local population significantly, though thankfully not Alaska or Canada.

They do also have their natural predators in both the killer whale and the Polar bear.

They are the most commonly kept cetaceans in the world, with around 300 in captivity. Japan, USA, Ukraine, Canada, China and Russia as well as a few more.

There are 22 populations around the world, these vary from 39,000 down to as little as 500. The total population is around 200,000. While this number is large, the number hunted is definitely not sustainable. There is also no care to distinguish the different populations, which suggests that sub-populations could be pushed to extinction without any care.

Below, you will find a clip from a bbc documentary which features this species. Below this, is a list of any mentions that the beluga whale has had on this site. Below this, I will list any opportunities to see this species in the wild. Click on list your wild place, to list yours. It takes just a few minutes, and costs nothing – we only charge a commission on any business we send your way.

brown Bear

Brown bear

With it’s range originally encompassing the whole of Europe, much of Asia, most of North America and the atlas mountains of Africa (the only native African bear), it has unfortunately been in decline for some time. These days the bear habitat consists of Alaska and parts of Canada as well as northern regions of the USA, relict populations in Western Europe though they still have a stronghold in Eastern Europe and and Russia as well as sections of central Asia. Highly intelligent they have never lived at high densities, as members high on the the food chain, few places can support large populations for long. With their impressive intelligence, and inquisitive nature, the can be tough to live alongside. With all that in mind brown bear watching can be an enjoyable pastime in many different places. Around much of the world there are newer hides in places that bears still exist – these allow you to watch bears in their natural habitat. We currently only have one listed (it’s will with a visit, link below) but we are always keen to list many more.

There are many places where bears live happily live alongside humans and are rarely seen.

Over time we hope to list many places where you can visit bears and see them in their wild home. These will be done by country (visit the tabs below). Below this, is a list of any articles that have been written on this species, below that will be links that we have to see bears yourself.

Spanish bears have done incredibly well, over the last few decades. There are 2 areas of the country where the bears exist. One is in the Pyrenees, and the other was in the Cantabria mountains. In the 1990s

Cantabria

The Cantabria bears population fell to just 50 bears in 2 populations in the mid 1990s, though oddly hunting was banned in 1973, so it took around 20 years for the population to stop falling – put down to illegal hunting and poaching  (I am not sure what the difference is between illegal hunting and poaching (the difference is that poaching often catches the animal alive). What was more concerning, was that there was only a handful of breeding females in the whole population. This population has grown very fast, the current population officially is around 370 strong (250 in the west, and 120 in the east with a gap of 40-50km however, it has been shown that bears have been moving from the large to the smaller population with relative regularity suggesting it cannot be too hard). Many people suggest that the population might be as high as 500 (It is good to under-estimate the population, as it allows the population to naturally grow to its previous size).

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees mountain chain run along the border between France and Spain, and in the early 20th century, there were around 150 bears in this population. This was reduced to 70 by 1954. By the 1990s, bears were missing from the central Pyrenees, which split the population, making both populations too small to retain significant genetic variability. In 1996, the French government introduced 3 bears from Slovenia (these are exactly the same subspecies, and the population was only split in modern times. Before this, there was just 7-8 living in the western part of the mountain range. Further reintroductions were made:  five in 2006, and two in 2018. This new genetic material, allowed the population to recover, and at the current time, the Pyrenees population is estimated at 83 as of 2023. In recent times, the bear population has been growing at 11% per year. Being spread along the border, it is impossible to clearly differentiate a Spanish population and a French population.

While not an image of the bear in particular, likely very similar

In May 2019, a brown bear was spotted in Portugal for the first time since 1843, confirming the return of the species to the country. The bear was spotted in Montesinho Natural Park, in the Bragança region of northeast Portugal, close to the Spanish border. The bear likely came from the western Cantabrian Mountains in Spain, where the brown bear population is slowly increasing. This is perfectly normal behaviour, as the male bears disperse some distance to avoid inbreeding.

Having said this, when I was there back 5 years earlier, 3 bears were being seen from time to time, around the Sierra de Culebra, right on the Portuguese border. As such, it is quite likely that bears have been crossing this border for some time, even if locals were unaware.

Given time, it is quite conceivable that this population will grow and become a permanent presence in the country – so long as it is allowed to be. It should be noted, that while bears can be a nuisance, it is an opportunistic omnivore. Eating mainly plants, roots, fruit, berries and nuts, its mostly vegetarian diet is supplemented by insects, eggs, honey, fungi and carrion. Given the presence of wolves in Portugal, the bear is capable of living alongside humans far easier than wolves. It is true that they have an annoying habit of breaking into bee hives, but that is little compared to the occasional livestock kill.

French bears have not done well, having come to the edge of extinction before a number of bears were translocated to the mountain range from Slovenia.

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees mountain chain run along the border between France and Spain, and in the early 20th century, there were around 150 bears in this population. This was reduced to 70 by 1954. By the 1990s, bears were missing from the central Pyrenees, which split the population, making both populations too small to retain significant genetic variability. In 1996, the French government introduced 3 bears from Slovenia (these are exactly the same subspecies, and the population was only split in modern times. Before this, there was just 7-8 living in the western part of the mountain range. Further reintroductions were made:  five in 2006, and two in 2018. This new genetic material, allowed the population to recover, and at the current time, the Pyrenees population is estimated at 83 as of 2023. In recent times, the bear population has been growing at 11% per year. Being spread along the border, it is impossible to clearly differentiate a Spanish population and a French population.

There were once bears in the French alps as well, but the last one was shot in 1936. There are bears in the alps, but it appears that there is not a permanent

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees mountain chain run along the border between France and Spain, and in the early 20th century, there were around 150 bears in this population. This was reduced to 70 by 1954. By the 1990s, bears were missing from the central Pyrenees, which split the population, making both populations too small to retain significant genetic variability. In 1996, the French government introduced 3 bears from Slovenia (these are exactly the same subspecies, and the population was only split in modern times. Before this, there was just 7-8 living in the western part of the mountain range. Further reintroductions were made:  five in 2006, and two in 2018. This new genetic material, allowed the population to recover, and at the current time, the Pyrenees population is estimated at 83 as of 2023. In recent times, the bear population has been growing at 11% per year. Being spread along the border, it is impossible to clearly differentiate a Spanish population and a French population on the French sideof the mountain range.

While Switzerland does not have a resident population of brown bears, there are occasional sightings of bears that immigrate from Italy. The last indigenous bear in Switzerland was shot in 1904.
Bear plan
In 2006, Switzerland implemented a “bear plan” to promote coexistence between humans and bears. This plan includes killing bears that pose a risk to humans, such as those that frequently enter human settlements. Having said this, in practice, in recent years, it has often meant that any bear which enters Switzerland and does not leave quick enough has been targeted. Thankfully being wild animals, they have often left on their own
Bear sightings
Bears have been spotted in the cantons of Bern, Grisons, Lucerne, Nidwald, Obwald, Schwyz, Ticino, Uri, and Valais.

The notorious brown bear known as M13 has been killed. He was shot in the early hours of Tuesday, after it proved impossible to keep him away from human settlements, the Federal Office for the Environment announced on Wednesday. M13 was the only bear known to have been living in Switzerland. 

A male bear born in Italy in 2013, M29 is believed to have crossed into Switzerland in April 2016. He was spotted a few times before disappearing in September 2017. It is not clear what happened, but very often when a bear disappears, that means that it has been illegally killed (though we can hope he simple left of his own accord).

 

The Marsican brown bear is one of the surviving populations of bears in western Europe. At the current time, there are an estimated 50-60 bears living in the mountains, though only 10-12 of these are females of breeding age. In 1980s there were 100 bears in this region. However, if we could reduce the death rate, each breeding female, is capable of producing up to 3 bear cubs, every couple of years. This means that we can expect as high as 15 bear cub births a year, or an increase of 25% in the population.

The Marsican brown bear, also known as the Apennine brown bear, lives in a range of about 5,000 to 8,000 square kilometers in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. This range includes:

  • The Abruzzo-Lazio-Molise National Park
  • The Sibillini National Park
  • The Gran Sasso-Laga National Park
  • The Majella National Park
  • The Velino-Sirente National Park
  • The Simbruini Regional Park
The other brown bear population was reintroduced to Trentino from Slovenia. This population has grown to over 100 bears. It should be noted, that Slovenia, is directly to the right of this part of Italy, so it is quite possible that at some point, the bears might have migrated to the area naturally. These reintroductions started in 1999 and continued for around 5 years. Only 10 bears were moved, suggesting an impressive rate of recovery.
It should be noted, that while the Marsican bear has a tourist industry around it, as of yet there is far less around the Trentino bear population.

Having gone extinct back in the 19th century, one might wonder why I have included it on this list. The closest population is in trentino in Italy, however, there have been many reported sightings, and given bears habits of dispersing hundreds of miles, this is not impossible to believe. While likely a shock to the people of Germany, and possible that the German government would choose to kill any bears that settled, Germany has plenty of wild space, after all, the country now hosts 1200 wolves.

Brown bears are roaming into the country, with increasing frequency, but  none have as yet settled within the country.

However, while there is less wilderness in Hungary than many ccountries in Europe, meaning this population can only grow slowly.

Polar Bear

Polar bear

  • A relatively new species of bear, the polar bear is the only species adapted for polar life. Still being found all around the Arctic, there are roughly 26,000 in the wild at the current time. Whalers and for traders killed many in the 19th century, and while they have recovered experts predict that global warming is likely to lead to the extinction of the polar bear.

Polar bears are distant cousins of the Grizzly bear, and as the weather warms, polar bears are moving south and Grizzlies north. This has on at least one occasion created a so called “Pizzly”. We only know about this, because a hunter who paid to kill a polar bear accidentally shot the Pizzly. I have made it clear my lack of appreciation for the so called hunter – while I am ready to admit that in places the money is useful for conservation, I hope that with your help and this website, we might make it an irrelevance.

Found throughout the arctic, they can be seen in 

  • Alaska (USA) 4000-7000
  • Canada   16,000
  • Greenland 3500-4000
  • Norwegian islands, particularly Svalbard about 3000
  • Russia:22,000-31,000 (note, this adds up to far to many – indeed Russias population alone is above the world population, also some are shared between countries)

Over time we hope to list many places where you can visit bears and see them in their wild home, these will appear here, and a list of posts we have published on bears will appear below these links

Sloth Bear

Sloth bear

The sloth bear is restricted to India, with about 20000 remaining. Unfortunately their population is falling, as a result of habitat loss.

 

 These bears live alongside tigers and many other species though they are not particularly easy to find.

Over time we hope to list many places where you can visit bears and see them in their wild home, these will appear here, and a list of posts we have published on bears will appear below these links

Bear Family tree

Bear family tree

The world has 8 species of bear. Although an incredibly successful family in their own right, humans have not been good for the various species which make up this family.

Click on a picture to be taken to its page

Sun bear Genus Ursinae
Sloth bear Genus Ursinae
Asiatic black bear or moon bear Genus Ursinae
Spectacled bear Genus Ursinae subfamily Ailuropodinae
Polar bear Genus Ursinae
Brown bear Genus Ursinae
American black bear Genus Ursinae
Panda bear

Below is a family tree showing current understood relation between the bear species

See Animals Wild