Scandanavia

There is one large contiguous brown bear population in northwestern Russia and Finland. Since the fall of Communism this population has begun to reconnect with smaller populations in Scandanavia.

Sweden has actively managed to protect and increase their brown bear population after a period during which they were almost extirpated. Approximately 700 brown bears were estimated in Sweden and Norway in 1994 (Swenson 1994). Sweden contains the densest brown bear population in Europe and it is located in areas with the highest road densities known for brown bear habitat. This occurs because of the tolerance and respect of Swedes for brown bears, and also because many of the more aggressive traits may have been selected against when brown bears were persecuted. Presently there may be close to 1000 brown bears, most of these bears reside in Sweden, but they are begining to expand into Norway where they are more likely to come into conflict with sheep herding practices. In Sweden sheep are herded under close supervision and are penned up at night; in Norway sheep roam freely with little supervision. Sheep in Norway are thus much more vulnerable to bear predation. (from Swenson et al. 1994, and J. Swenson, pers. comm.)

This map shows grizzly bear distribution in Norway and Sweden (stippled area) and areas of female home ranges in Sweden (green polygons)[from Taberlet et al. 1995]. A mtDNA analysis of 127 individual bears using hair samples found two distinct lineages. Females in the southernmost area descended from a southern European brown bear population while females from the three northernmost areas descended from a northern population. These lineages were probably seperated in an Iberian refugium and a Balkan refugium during Quartenary cold periods about 0.85 million years ago (Taberlet and Bouvet 1994). Female brown bears are more philopataric than males and disperse slowly from natal areas. The Swedish population is thus subdivided into these 4 areas of female home ranges. Males range much more widely and are found throughout the stippled area.

Literature Cited

Swenson, J.E.,P. Wabakken, F. Sandegren, A. Bjarvall, R. Franzen, and A. Soderberg. 1995. The near extinction and recovery of brown bears in Scandinavia in relation to the bear management policies of Norway and Sweden. Wildlife Biology 1:11-25.

Taberlet, P.,J.E. Swenson, F. Sandegren, and A. Bjarvall. 1994. Localization of a contact zone between two highly divergent mitochondrial DNA lineages of the brown bear (Ursus arctos ) in Scandanavia. Conservation Biology 9(5):1255-1261.

Taberlet, P., and J. Bouvet. 1994. Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism, phylogeography, and conservation genetics of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Europe. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 255:195-200.

Pullainen, E. 1989. The status of the brown bear in northern Europe. cited in C. Servheen. 1990. The status and conservation of the bears of the world. Proceedings International Conference on Bear Research and Management. 8: monograph series no. 2. page 15.

Servheen, C. 1990. The status and conservation of the Bears of the world. Eighth International Conference on Research and Management. Monograph Series No. 2. 32 pages.

Swenson, H. 1994. Sweden and Norway: historic and present status of the brown bear in Scandinavia. International Bear News (3)3:5.

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