The annual bear hunt in Sweden is always a source of discussion.
This year, the County Administrative Board has decided that 465 bears may be shot, which is about twenty fewer than last year and a significant decrease from the record year 2023, when 649 bears were allowed to be shot.
"Will have consequences"
465 bears correspond to about 19 percent of the total population – and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation believes that the hunting license quota should be much lower.
We do not think this is good at all, says Chairman Beatrice Rindevall.
There has been a very tough hunting license for bears and now you can shoot one out of five animals. The stock will not have time to recover, the bear stock has a growth rate of about ten percent per year. This is not what we want to see, she continues.
The bear is protected in Sweden and the species is classified as strictly protected under the EU's species and habitat directive. The hunting license in Sweden is on the condition that it does not threaten the conservation status of the species.
Even if the shooting has decreased in recent years, it is still a high level. It can have consequences for the population that not only affect the number but also the gender distribution and age composition. You have to think about these things. We do not quite know what consequences it has when the population decreases, says Jonas Kindberg, bear researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
He continues:
You cannot shoot so many bears all the time, but it is also the management and decision-makers who are aware of this. They will reduce the shooting when they have reached the goals they have set. It can have effects on future reproduction, depending on which bears are shot. It takes at least five years before a bear is sexually mature, that's what you should keep in mind.
Crisis for several species
During the 20th century, the bear was close to being eradicated in Sweden and Beatrice Rindevall means that it is a success story that the stock has been able to recover to today's levels of around 2,500 bears.
The political decisions that are now being made are on the way to reversing the trend. We have a crisis for several species. If we continue to treat species like this, we are digging our own grave. Humans need other species to be able to survive and predators are important in the ecosystem, she says.
In 1927, the bear was protected in Sweden. Then there were only about 130 left, after centuries of hunting.
As early as 1893, the bounty on bears was abolished and when the Sonfjället National Park in Härjedalen was established in 1909, it was, among other things, to give the bear a sanctuary.
In 1942, the Swedish population was estimated to be 294 bears and it was decided that it was large enough to withstand hunting. This led to a form of autumn hunting being reintroduced in Sweden in 1943.
Today, there are about 2,500 bears in Sweden.
This year, 465 bears may be shot in the hunting license, which begins on 21/8.
Source: The Scandinavian Bear Project
