Eurasian Brown Bear - Distribution

Distribution

Although their inclusion as of Least Concern on the 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species refers to the global species, not to the Eurasian brown bear specifically, local populations are becoming increasingly scarce. And as the IUCN itself adds

Least Concern does not always mean that species are not at risk. There are declining species that are evaluated as Least Concern.

Brown bears could once be found across most of northern Eurasia.

The brown bear has long been extinct in Britain and Ireland, but it still exists in Northern Europe and in Russia. There is a tiny population in the Pyrenees, on the border between Spain and France, which is on the edge of extinction, as well as an equally threatened group in the Cantabrian Mountains in Spain. There are also populations in the Abruzzi and Trentino regions of Italy.

Populations in Baltoscandia are steady and slowly increasing – they include over 2000 bears in Sweden, another 1200 in Finland, 700 in Estonia and around 70 in Norway.

Large populations can be found in Albania, Romania, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bulgaria; smaller, but still significant populations can also be found in Greece, Serbia and Montenegro; in 2005, there were an estimated 200 in Ukraine; these populations are part of two distinct metapopulations: the Carpathian (over 5,000 individuals), and the Dinaric-Pindos (Balkans), with around 3,000 individuals.

The largest brown bear population in Europe can be found in Russia; it has now recovered from an all-time low caused by intensive hunting prior to the Russian revolution of 1917

Globally, the largest population is found east of the Ural mountain range, in the large Siberian forests; brown bears are also present in smaller numbers in parts of central Asia (former Soviet states).

Other subspecies of brown bear persist in small, isolated and for the most part highly threatened populations in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of northwest India, central China, and on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan.