Hunting season for brown bears in Sweden has officially opened, causing criticism among animal welfare activists.
Sweden’s environmental protection agency has offered a nationwide permit to hunt a total of 486 brown bears in 2024.
However, activists have warned that quotas for the bear species are too high and are actually dwindling, which would result in a 20% drop in the bear population.
Jonas Kindberg, ecologist from the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project, explains, “If you want the population to remain stable at around the 2,400 animals we estimate today, you can only shoot about 250 bears annually.”
Kindberg noted that this permit to hunt 486 brown bears “can quickly have major consequences that can become critical for the bear population.”