Brown bears in some European countries were at risk of extinction in the 1990s (Picture: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Nobody wants to encounter a bear on their holiday – especially if that bear has been dragged out of bed early.
There are fresh fears about bear attacks after a Danish tourist was injured while skiing in the Shar Mountain area of North Macedonia.
The skier was airlifted to hospital with an injury on their left leg following a brown bear attack – an attack that is especially alarming as brown bears are usually in hibernation in North Macedonia at this time of year.
Experts have long been that warmer winters are disrupting bear hibernation patterns.
Most brown bears just want to be left alone (Picture: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Brown bears hibernate from October to April. However, when temperatures get warmer, they can be woken up earlier. Now some bears are not hibernating at all.
That means they are roaming more than they usually would be – increasing the chance that they’ll encounter a human.
According to the head of North Macedonia’s national Crises Management Centre, the brown bear population in the national park has doubled in the last five years.
And across Europe, bear attacks have been on the rise.
Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a brown bear while he was out for a jog in northern Italy last April.
Andrea Papi, 26, was killed when he was attacked by a bear in Italy (Picture: Newsflash)
The case kicked off an ongoing controversy in Italy as politcians disagreed on what to do with the killer bear.
Maurizio Fugatti, the far-right provincial governor of Trentino, where the incident took place, issued an order to capture and kill the animal.
However, animal rights activists launched an appeal, and the fate of the bear is still up in the air today.
Another bear attacked a 39-year-old hiker in the Italian Dolomites in March 2023, and there have been seven more recorded bear attacks in Trentino.
The rise in attacks is partly down to a decades-long rewilding programme which has helped to restore the brown bear population in the area.
There were only four bears left in the wild in Trentino in 1998. However, two EU-backed rewilding programmes set out to increase the brown bear population.
Nine bears were moved from Slovenia to Trentino, where the local bear population is now at about 100.
What to do if you come face to face with a dangerous animal
Most wild animals just want to be left alone.
If you come across a dangerous animal in the wild, the best approach is to gently make your presence known, try to look as big as possible, and calmly back away.
The same is true if confronted with a dangerous dog. Don’t taunt it, and don’t look it directly in the eye. If a dog does try to attack you, turn your body to the side and try to cover the dogs eyes.
In the case of bears, Professor of Wildlife Sciences Tim Smith says they will usually only attack if they are provoked.
‘Bears are by their nature large predators, but they don’t particularly prey on humans,’ the Brigham Young University lecturer told the BBC.
He said that if you encounter a bear, you should raise your voice and clap your hands as you approach a bear so that you don’t startle them.
Don’t run, as the bear might think that you are prey, and don’t climb a tree, as the bear can climb up too.
In most cases, the bear will let you leave without batting an eyelid.
However, in the rare case that a bear does attack, the best way to respond depends on the type of bear.
If attacked by a brown bear, the best option is to lay on your stomach and play dead.
However, if attacked by a black bear, you should fight back if there’s no way to escape to safety. Try to look as intimidating as possible. Black bears only live in North America.
In Romania, the rate of bear attacks tripled between 2017 and 2019. 14 people were killed by bears in the country between 2016 and 2021.
‘When I started 20 years ago, it was very rare to see a bear. Now I see them about three or four times in a 12-hour shift,’ said Vali Cristea, a riot police officer in the Romanian city of Brașov.
There are at least 7,500 bears in the Carpathian mountains in Romania – a 25% increase from 2016. Romania’s Minister for the Environment recently proposed ‘exporting’ bears to other EU countries.