Roaming Bears Send Finns Reaching for Their Guns
November 1, 1998 - 0:0
HELSINKI Finland is growing worried at the big increase in the number of brown bears roaming its forests and wants to cull their number even though the European Union lists the creature as a protected animal. The northern Europeans are particularly concerned at the changed behavior of the brown bears. The traditionally shy animals have become more outward bound and less afraid of human beings.
The bears often pay unwanted visits to villages, where they chew corn from the fields, chase dogs or rifle through dustbins in search of food. Many of them are economic tourists from neighboring Russia. In the Russian part of Karelia the collapse of the agricultural economy has laid many collective farms to waste. Fields are bare and there is scarcely any food for the bears.
With the nearly 1,000-kilometer long border fence between Finland and Russia rusted away at many places, leaving holes that are not likely to be replaced, the brown bears slip into the West. Electronic sensors betray the four-legged intruders but unlike human illegal immigrants they are not stopped by guards or sent back home. Finnish nature lovers refer affectionately to the city bears but scientists have warned for years that too many bears close to human settlements could prove fatal.
An adult brown bear, which can weigh up to 300 kilos, is a dangerous adversary when angered by man, as illustrated by one incident last June. A 42-year old man was killed by a female bear in Ruokolahti, eastern Finland while out jogging in the forest. It appears the bear, who was in the forest with her cub, was startled by the man's silent approach and attacked the intruder to protect her young.
It was the first recorded incident of its kind in Scandinavia for 100 years. The killer bear and the cub were shot after a special license had been issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. Over the past few month Finns have reported numerous encounters with bears, mostly in eastern Finland, which has the densest bear population, but also in the south.
In one case a bear walked into the grounds of a house, sniffing the air in apparent indifference to the sound of voices of inside the building before ambling away, said Katja Tohmo, keeper of a tourist center in Kontiolahti, eastern Finland. The sight of prowling bears has been reported in many places across the country and many people are afraid to venture too far into the forests to gather berries and mushrooms.
The EU lists the bear as a protected animal and hunting is subject to the issue of a special license. There are an estimated 1,000 bears in Finland, and this year game preservation authorities have granted licenses to kill 100 of them. The hunting season lasts until the end of October and more than 90 bears have already lost their lives.
Experts say this is far too little to counteract breeding increases. In Ruokolahti local hunters recently invited Finnish Minister of Agriculture Kalevi Hemilae to take part in bear hunting. Members of the minister's hunting party returned with no bearskins on their backs but Hemilae told his hosts the ministry was thinking of changing legislation soon in order to allow more bears to be shot.
(DPA)
The bears often pay unwanted visits to villages, where they chew corn from the fields, chase dogs or rifle through dustbins in search of food. Many of them are economic tourists from neighboring Russia. In the Russian part of Karelia the collapse of the agricultural economy has laid many collective farms to waste. Fields are bare and there is scarcely any food for the bears.
With the nearly 1,000-kilometer long border fence between Finland and Russia rusted away at many places, leaving holes that are not likely to be replaced, the brown bears slip into the West. Electronic sensors betray the four-legged intruders but unlike human illegal immigrants they are not stopped by guards or sent back home. Finnish nature lovers refer affectionately to the city bears but scientists have warned for years that too many bears close to human settlements could prove fatal.
An adult brown bear, which can weigh up to 300 kilos, is a dangerous adversary when angered by man, as illustrated by one incident last June. A 42-year old man was killed by a female bear in Ruokolahti, eastern Finland while out jogging in the forest. It appears the bear, who was in the forest with her cub, was startled by the man's silent approach and attacked the intruder to protect her young.
It was the first recorded incident of its kind in Scandinavia for 100 years. The killer bear and the cub were shot after a special license had been issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. Over the past few month Finns have reported numerous encounters with bears, mostly in eastern Finland, which has the densest bear population, but also in the south.
In one case a bear walked into the grounds of a house, sniffing the air in apparent indifference to the sound of voices of inside the building before ambling away, said Katja Tohmo, keeper of a tourist center in Kontiolahti, eastern Finland. The sight of prowling bears has been reported in many places across the country and many people are afraid to venture too far into the forests to gather berries and mushrooms.
The EU lists the bear as a protected animal and hunting is subject to the issue of a special license. There are an estimated 1,000 bears in Finland, and this year game preservation authorities have granted licenses to kill 100 of them. The hunting season lasts until the end of October and more than 90 bears have already lost their lives.
Experts say this is far too little to counteract breeding increases. In Ruokolahti local hunters recently invited Finnish Minister of Agriculture Kalevi Hemilae to take part in bear hunting. Members of the minister's hunting party returned with no bearskins on their backs but Hemilae told his hosts the ministry was thinking of changing legislation soon in order to allow more bears to be shot.
(DPA)