Predators
in Finland
Respected
Bear
Nowadays
bears tend to have a negative reputation in Finland. Media likes to report
on such cases where a bear has been aggressive towards a human being. For
example in the summer of 1998 in Ruokolahti a mother bear killed a man
that had come between the bear and her cubs. However, bear does not see
human being as a catch even though a mother bear, a rutting male or a wounded
bear can act aggressively (Nyholm 1990:244). In the 17th century a reward
was paid for killing bears and therefore at the turn of the next century
bears had vanished from the Southern Finland. By the 19th century the bear
population recovered and was nearly as big as nowadays but it diminished
during the 1930s when people hunted bears year round. Hunting equipments
developed during the 1960s and the bear population became less than 200.
Hunting restriction have made it possible for a vital bear-population to
exist in Finland these days. Excessive growth is limited by hunting (Ruuhijärvi
1986:153).
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