Romania approves culling of nearly 500 bears after deadly hiker attack

Romania's parliament approved the culling of nearly 500 bears this year in response to a deadly hiker attack that caused national outrage.

Romania, which has Europe's largest brown bear population outside of Russia with 8,000 bears, has seen a significant number of bear-related fatalities and injuries. Over the past 20 years, bears have killed 26 people and severely injured 274 others, according to the environment ministry.

The recent incident involved a young hiker who was mauled to death on a popular trail in the Carpathian Mountains, prompting Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to call an emergency session of parliament. During the session, lawmakers not only approved the culling of 481 bears in 2024 - more than double last year's total of 220 - but also held a moment of silence in memory of the 19-year-old victim.

Lawmakers justified the increased culling by citing bear overpopulation as the cause of the rising attacks, although they admitted that the measure might not completely prevent future incidents.

Environmental groups, however, have criticized the new law.

WWF biologist Calin Ardelean argued that the focus should be on prevention and intervention, rather than culling. WWF Romania emphasized that without measures to keep bears away from communities, such as better waste management and preventing people from feeding bears, the culling would not effectively solve the problem.

In 2023, Romanian authorities recorded approximately 7,500 emergency calls regarding bear sightings, more than double the number from the previous year, highlighting the growing concern over bear-human encounters.