Current Distribution of Bears in Europe
Today, most regions of Europe have more brown bears than they did in the last century. Altogether, ten different populations are distinguished. While the populations in Central and Western Europe are all very small and isolated, there are still larger populations, particularly in the East and North. The largest population lives in the Carpathian Mountains.
Bears in Continental Europe
At the beginning of the 20th century, the brown bear population was at an all-time low, or already extinct, in many regions of Europe. In the Alps, only a small remnant population survived in the province of Trento in Italy. After this low point, there were increased conservation efforts and even reintroduction projects in the second half of the 20th century. The bears that occasionally disperse to Switzerland originate from the population in Trentino. For the continued survival of a bear population in the Alps, a connection between the population in Trentino and the one in the Dinaric Mountains is of central importance. Click on the individual populations to learn more about their history.
Click on the individual populations to learn more about their history.
Experience Report from Trentino, Italy
The Trentino region in the Italian Central Alps is home to a genetically isolated population of brown bears (Ursus arctos), located about 200 km from the nearest population. After this population was considered functionally extinct in the 1990s, with only two to three individuals remaining, a reintroduction project was carried out between 1997 and 2004. As part of the project, ten bears (three males, seven females) were brought to Trentino from Slovenia. The aim was to establish a minimally viable population of at least 40 to 60 animals, with the long-term hope of developing a metapopulation that would genetically mix with the population in the Dinaric Mountains.
A joint action plan, the “Piano d’Azione interregionale per la Conservazione dell’Orso bruno nelle Alpi centro-orientali (Pacobace)”, was developed and adopted by the Italian Alpine regions in 2008. It contains guidelines for effective protection and management measures, including population monitoring, dealing with damage and problem bears, communication, training and networking of specialist personnel, etc.
The bear population in Trentino was estimated at 98 individuals in 2023 (95% CI: 86–120), excluding cubs born that year. Between 2015 and 2023, the population grew by an average of 11% per year. However, this positive growth trend was accompanied by an increase in conflicts with humans, both in terms of property damage and attacks. Between 2014 and 2024, with an average population size of 67 animals and a human population density of 88 inhabitants per square kilometre, there were nine attacks on humans by seven different bears, including one fatal incident in 2023. This event in particular sparked a long-simmering and increasingly heated debate about bear management.
Since 2002, the Autonomous Province of Trentino has been systematically implementing measures to reduce the negative consequences of encounters between humans and bears. These include state-funded information programmes, bear-proof adaptation of organic waste disposal since 2009, discussion forums in the communities (2011), the installation of warning signs and the use of bear dogs equipped with GPS transmitters to scare bears away when they approach humans. Nevertheless, representative surveys conducted by the provincial government (1997, 2003, 2011 and 2024) show a clear and continuous decline in public acceptance of bears.
This negative public attitude appears to be particularly linked to the repeated halting or delaying of killing problematic bears by court suspensions or rulings, following complaints filed by animal rights organisations.
It is essential to tackle the new challenges with all available means and methods – while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy and professionalism. Where necessary, this also includes killing bears in order to ensure public safety and the necessary acceptance for the long-term survival of the bear population.
Author: Claudio Groff, member of the European Brown Bear Expert Team and the Human–Bear Conflicts Expert Team, IUCN SSC Bear Specialist Group, Autonomous Province of Trento
Experience Report from Austria
The Austrian bear population had already been eradicated in the 19th century. From the 1950s onwards, bears from the recovering population in Slovenia began reaching southern Austria, and individual bears were soon regularly spotted in Carinthia.
A similar development has been observed in western Austria since 2005, where an increasing number of dispersing bears from the growing bear population in Trentino have been observed.
In 1972, a bear from Slovenia migrated far north to the Styrian-Lower Austrian Limestone Alps and settled in the Ötscher region. Between 1989 and 1993, three bears (two females and one male) from Slovenia/Croatia were released in the “Ötscher bear's” territory as part of a reintroduction project by WWF Austria. No further releases were carried out following the appearance of two problematic individuals. Despite initially good reproduction – 31 cubs were born by 2006 – the small population had disappeared again by 2011.
The causes were not fully clarified, but illegal killing probably played a decisive role.
The current bear population in Austria consists of only a few individuals. Over the past ten years, 3–7 bears have been genetically identified in Austria each year, many of which live in border regions with neighbouring countries. The main areas of distribution are Carinthia and Tyrol, with isolated sightings of bears in Vorarlberg, Salzburg and Styria in recent years. All genetically identified immigrants so far have been males. Apart from the reintroduction area, no reproduction has been confirmed. Most bears on dispersal do not remain long and are only recorded in Austria for one or two consecutive years. However, some individuals establish a home range and stay longer. A special case is the bear Ktn-03, whose DNA has been detected in samples from the Carnic Alps for many years (on the Austrian side for the first time in 2008).
Future developments are difficult to predict. Surprisingly, despite the significant increase in the Slovenian bear population over the past 30 years, there has been no increase in the number of bears in Carinthia. As long as the core areas of the two source populations do not spread towards Austria, and females do not follow the male pioneers, the situation in Austria will not change significantly.
Author: Georg Rauer, former bear and wolf coordinator for the «Länderübergreifende Koordinierungsstelle Braunbär, Luchs und Wolf»