During the weekend, the Brown Bear Intervention Team of the Slovak State Nature Conservancy (SNC SR Intervention Team) received a number of reports of bear sighting in the vicinity of people’s dwellings. All reports are duly investigated by the team members; however, the SNC SR wishes to warn the public that some of the reported cases are often unfounded and unnecessarily spread fear and panic in society.

One of these reports claimed a bear was seen in the built-up area of Sielnica municipality in the district of Zvolen. In this case, the SNC SR Intervention Team approached the municipal authorities of the concerned municipality and proposed to set up photo-monitoring devices in the area in order to track bear movements in the vicinity of the municipality and to increase the safety of its inhabitants. The SNC SR Intervention Team also ruled out the possibility that the bear which was spotted could be the female bear from the Bieň Menagerie near Kováčová, which was recently shot. In this case it is another specimen whose migration may be caused by the beginning of the bear oestrus season.

The reports, however, also frequently warn about the presence of bears outside residential areas and in forests. One such case was reported during the weekend in connection with the publicised warning of the occurrence of a female bear with cubs close to the village of Turie in the Žilina district. Slovak Police informed about the case and issued a warning urging the members of public to be cautious when moving in this area.

Caution in forest terrain with the presence of brown bears is always recommended. The SNC SR Intervention Team regularly publishes rules and recommendation on how to behave in such an environment. The forest environment is a natural habitat for bears and the areas around the municipality of Turie have long been among the brown bear’s natural habitats, as can be seen even in the coat of arms of the municipality, where a bear is depicted together with a blueberry bush. When entering the forest, we are also entering the area where the laws of nature naturally operate and it is necessary for us to learn to respect them. The forest is a place where primarily its natural inhabitants should be safe, and we must accept that our encounters with them are possible.

To minimise the risk of a bear encounter, the SNC SR Intervention Team recommends that hikers and visitors to the forest alert their presence acoustically and that they stick to hiking trails. It is also important that we restrict our movement in the mountain environment especially in bad weather, before dawn or at dusk, and avoid the places with limited visibility and dense vegetation, which are often used by bears for resting.

If residents spot a brown bear near municipalities or directly in residential areas, they should report the location to the SNC SR Intervention Team emergency lines. It is, however, important that we let the original inhabitants of the forests rest peacefully in their natural environment.

Further detailed information on how to act in the case of a bear encounter are available on the SNC SR Brown Bear Intervention Team’s website https://zasahovytim.sopsr.sk/.

In this context, the SNC SR has also prepared a short educational film on how we should behave in forests where large carnivores can occur, which is available on the SNC SR’s YouTube channel:

This press release was prepared by the Department of Communication and Promotion of the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic.