History of the Scandinavian 
Brown Bear Population

The brown bear once ranged across the majority of the European continent. This includes Scandinavia, where bears were spread across the Scandinavian Peninsula up to at least the mid-1600’s, including many of the area’s larger islands with the exception of Gotland in Sweden (1). Evidence from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that brown bears in Europe come from two different genetic lines originating in the east (Russia) and west (continental Europe) (2-4). The western line can be further subdivided into those originating from the Iberian Peninsula and from the Balkan Region. Bears first arrived in Scandinavia at least 6200 years ago during a post-glacial expansion after the Holocene glacial retreat (2). A second wave of immigration came from continental Europe at least 5300 years ago. Today, these populations remain genetically distinct, with founder mtDNA from the eastern wave (Russia), remaining in Scandinavia’s northern population (Jämtland/Trøndelag and further north), and mtDNA from the western wave (both the Iberian and Balkan regions) found in the more southern population (Hedmark/Härjedalen and further south) (2). Nevertheless, mtDNA initially part of the eastern wave, now found in Scandinavia’s northern population, were identified in samples during the last glacial maximum in the region of today’s France and Belgium. This indicates that the lineages may not have been that distinctly distributed, and that the history or recolonization may be more complex than previously assumed based on earlier studies (4). Further, previously conducted studies showed that genetic diversity must have been higher among historic brown bear samples from before the bottleneck (5, 6).

Sometime starting in the mid-1800’s and possibly even earlier, the Scandinavian bear population began to decline and the distribution shrink. This was in large part due to predator removal programs that were heavily subsidized in Norway and Sweden starting in the mid-1800’s; brown bear eradication was considered a priority by both nations (7). High premiums were paid for hunting bears, and hunters were further incentivized by the money they could earn selling bear skins and meat (7). The Scandinavian bear population was estimated at ~4700 individuals in the mid 1800’s (7). At that point, the majority (3100 or ~65%) of the bear population was found in Norway with the remainder of the population (1600-1700 or ~35%) found in southcentral or northern Sweden; bears were functionally extirpated in southern Sweden by the mid 1800’s (7). Heavy hunting continued during this time and the population continued to decrease, with the decline happening more quickly in Sweden, likely simply because there were fewer bears there already. Bears disappeared from south to north and from lowland to mountainous areas, i.e., they disappear first in the southern and low elevation areas in Sweden. This finally resulted in a major population bottleneck and remnant populations of about 130 bears distributed between a few discrete inaccessible mountain areas by the 1920’s (7).

Near the turn of the century, the Swedish Hunters' Association and the Swedish Academy drafted plans to save the Scandinavian brown bear from extinction. This represents the beginning of divergent management goals and actions between Sweden and Norway. Sweden abolished bounties in 1893 and introduced several measures that helped reverse the population decline by around 1930 (7). In 1942, the Swedish population was estimated at 294 bears, and it was decided their population was large enough to withstand hunting; license hunting was reintroduced in Sweden in 1943. Norway abolished national bounties in 1930, but local bounties were allowed until 1972. The bear population increased about 1.5% per year from 1942 to 1991 (8). In 1994, the Scandinavian population was estimated to be about 650-700 individuals in Sweden and 22-35 in Norway. Since then, the brown bear population has rebounded and functionally stabilized; as of 2022, there were an estimated 2587-3080 bears in Sweden (www.naturvardsverket.se) while the Norwegian population remained small, estimated at about 111-142 individuals (9). Hunting remains legal in both countries although management strategies for Sweden and Norway remain divided.