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Brown bear attacks on humans: a worldwide perspective.

Giulia BombieriJ NavesV PenterianiN SelvaA Fernández-GilJosé Vicente López-BaoH AmbarliCarlos BautistaT BespalovaV BobrovV BolshakovS BondarchukJ J CamarraS ChiriacPaolo CiucciA DutsovI DykyyJ M FedrianiA García-RodríguezP J GarroteS GashevC GroffB GutlebM HaringS HärkönenD HuberM KaboliY KalinkinA A KaramanlidisV KarpinV KastrikinL KhlyapP KhoetskyI KojolaY KozlowA KorolevN KorytinV KozsheechkinMiha KrofelJ KurhinenI KuznetsovaE LarinA LevykhV MamontovP MännilD MelovskiY MertzanisA MeydusA MohammadiH NorbergS PalazónL M PătrașcuK PavlovaP PedriniP Y QuenetteE RevillaR RiggY RozhkovL F RussoA RykovL SaburovaV SahlénA P SaveljevI V SeryodkinA ShelekhovA ShishikinM ShkvyriaV SidorovichV SopinO StøenJ StofikJ E SwensonD TirskiA VasinP WabakkenL YarushinaT Zwijacz-KozicaM M Delgado
Published in: Scientific reports (2019)
The increasing trend of large carnivore attacks on humans not only raises human safety concerns but may also undermine large carnivore conservation efforts. Although rare, attacks by brown bears Ursus arctos are also on the rise and, although several studies have addressed this issue at local scales, information is lacking on a worldwide scale. Here, we investigated brown bear attacks (n = 664) on humans between 2000 and 2015 across most of the range inhabited by the species: North America (n = 183), Europe (n = 291), and East (n = 190). When the attacks occurred, half of the people were engaged in leisure activities and the main scenario was an encounter with a female with cubs. Attacks have increased significantly over time and were more frequent at high bear and low human population densities. There was no significant difference in the number of attacks between continents or between countries with different hunting practices. Understanding global patterns of bear attacks can help reduce dangerous encounters and, consequently, is crucial for informing wildlife managers and the public about appropriate measures to reduce this kind of conflicts in bear country.
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