Bear encounters continue to be an everyday reality to residents of mountain regions in Romania. This fact was made even more obvious after the head of the mountain rescuers in the town of Predeal, Brasov county, was attacked by a bear on Sunday evening, March 30. Meanwhile, the locals of Busteni, in neighboring Prahova county, have been complaining of bears coming out the forest in search of food at dumpsters.
The man attacked by a bear in Predeal was on his way home after finishing his workday when he was reportedly caught off guard by the bear. Witnessing the attack, a passerby called the emergency service, and two SMURD emergency teams, including one intensive care unit, were urgently dispatched to the scene to provide specialized medical assistance.
The man was found unconscious and in a critical state. He was rushed to the hospital, with injuries to his head, face, and back. He remains in critical condition.
According to local sources, the attacker was a female bear with two cubs. The three had been frequently spotted in the area.
After the attack, the president of Salvamont Romania, Sabin Cornoiu, called for urgent measures against bears. "We aspire to have tourist resorts, but as we can see, we are unable to manage these situations. It could have been anyone, not just the head of Salvamont. A solution must be found so that this does not happen again,” he said, stating that the animals have become bolder, according to Biziday.
Prahova prefect Emil Drăgănescu echoed Cornoiu, demanding higher bear culling quotas to stop attacks and warning that bear encounters will only increase in the summer. The hunting quota was already increased last year after a deadly bear attack in the Bucegi mountains. However, environmental NGOs and specialists have repeatedly warned that hunting alone is not a sufficient solution to lower the number of bear attacks or sustainably manage the population.
Environment minister Mircea Fechet also reacted to the recent news, saying that relocating or driving bears away from urban areas "does not yield sufficient results." He supports the idea that problem bears - those that are aggressive, scavengers, or beggars - should be shot, including those that approach urban areas.
The minister also told news channel Digi24 that the annual quota for bear culling could be revised, and noted that the next step, after removing the wolf from the list of strictly protected species, should be to remove the bear from that list as well.
The attack in Predeal is not singular along the highly-touristic Prahova Valley, which spans several mountain resorts and is highly popular among tourists.
In Busteni, some 12 km from Predeal, residents and tourists have to spend their evenings dodging bears that come out of the forest in search of food. Wild animals often appear on the busy streets of the town even at dusk, making the danger even greater, especially since they are usually mother bears with two or even three cubs, including in children's playgrounds, according to Digi24. A video of such an encounter was shared on social media here.
Authorities have yet to take concrete measures to stop or reduce the phenomenon, even after last summer’s tragedy in Bucegi Mountains, when a 19-year-old girl was attacked and mauled by a bear on a popular tourist trail. Especially violent, the bear in question was later killed by the gendarmes. He was, however, not the only one coming too close to humans. Locals say that despite their fondness for the emblematic animals, their own safety is put at risk.
The data gives context to these separate attacks. In 2023, the Ministry of Environment noted that Romania has over 8,000 bears, around 40% of Europe’s total bear population, and double the optimal population of 4,000 that the country’s natural habitat can sustain without affecting human populations. Most bears can be found in the counties of Prahova, Brașov, Covasna, Harghita, Bistrița, Buzău, and Neamț. The figure, however, was questioned by environmental specialists who criticized the lack of transparency regarding the methodology used and the absence of clear data, such as population density.
Nevertheless, based on the reports of the ministry and the emotion behind the killing of the teenager, then-minister of environment Tánczos Barna signed an order effectively allowing the culling of more than 400 bears to limit human-bear conflicts.
At the time, critics highlighted that the ministry, which eagerly released figures and greenlit the culling, had received EUR 11 million in European funding for the project titled "National Action Plan for the Conservation of the Brown Bear Population in Romania," which was supposed to be completed in December 2023, PressOne noted. The project included a scientific census of Romania's brown bears and the construction of a complex for their care. The project, however, is still unfinished and there is still no exact figure on the number of bears in Romania. The complex is similarly incomplete.
Environmental NGOs still argue that hunting alone is not a sufficient solution to lower the number of bear attacks or sustainably manage the population. The recent attack in Predeal may give credence to their claims, despite the fact that higher bear-killing quotas remains Romanian officials cheap and easy go-to solution.
(Photo source: Ernbach Antal | Dreamstime.com)
