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European brown bears are currently found in 10 populations that differ widely in size. Four populations contain greater than 1,000 bears, whereas 4 contain less than 100 individuals. The largest is the Northeastern population (37,000 bears) that extends from Latvia and Estonia, through European Russia and Finland to northern Norway. This population is almost connected to the Scandinavian population (1,000 bears) that occurs mainly in Sweden, but is now expanding into central and southern Norway. The Carpathian population (8,100 bears) extends from Romania, through Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia almost to the Czech Republic. The Dinaric-Eastern Alps population (2,800 bears) extends from Austria, through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Yugoslavia Federation, and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to northwest Greece. Two populations of intermediate size are also found in the Balkans, the Rila-Rhodope mountains (520 bears) on the Greece-Bulgaria border, and the Stara Planina mountains (200 bears) in central Bulgaria. Finally there are 6 small relict populations, in Italy in the central Apennines (40-50 bears) and Trentino in the southern Alps (8 bears), in two discrete locations in the Pyrenees (total of 12 bears) on the French-Spanish border, and in two distinct populations in Spain’s Cantabrian mountains (50-65 bears and 20 bears). These European populations fall into two major genetic lineages (mitochondrial DNA) an Eastern and a Western type. The bears in the Carpathians, Northeastern and northern Scandinavia populations and all across Siberia to Alaska belong to the Eastern type. Within the western type a further distinction can be made: Those in southern Scandinavia, the Pyrenees and Cantabria form one lineage, while those in the Southern Alps, Apennines, Dinaric-Eastern Alps, Rila Rhodope mountains and the Stara Planina mountains form a second lineage.Details of the history and status of these populations is summarized in Swenson et al. (1999) and Servheen et al. (1999), or can be searched for under ecoregion or country in the literature data base. Most information in the tables is up to date (at least post 1995) with the exception of Belarus, some of the countries from the former Yugoslavia and Albania. |
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